Directions Left by a GENTLEMAN TO HIS SONS: FOR THE Improvement Of Barren and Heathy LAND, IN ENGLAND and WALES.  
LONDON, Printed by E. T. and R. H. for R. Royston, Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, MDCLXX.   

TO HIS Honoured Friend, KENRICKE EYTON Esquire, Of the Inner Temple.  
SIR,  
I Have (upon assurance of your excellent Candour) presumed to invite you from your more fertile Studies to the Barren Heath, where you will find the Air wholesome, though the Soil be sterile. Frustra salubris est locus, ubi peritur fame. Frustra fertilis ubi non licet vivere. The richest Seats are not healthy: Health and Wealth seldom meet in the same Place. The Design of the ensuing Directions is to render the Barren Earth fruitful, and provide for the Profit as well as Pleasure of those whose Lot is fallen into a Heathy Ground. The wise God, who justly Cursed the Earth for Man's sake, hath yet left Means of Redemption by the Sweat of his Brow, and Labour of his Hand. Humane Industry, with the Blessing of God upon it, will faecundate the Earth, which Man's sin made unfruitful. The admirable Production of Art out of Nature's dull and unwieldy Womb are the Subject of many Discourses; and the new Experiments of every Day allure the Ingenious to renewed Essays. Amongst the various Trials of this kind, none is more profitable than this of Improving Barren Ground, and the good Husbandry to turn the parched Desert into a Fruitful Field, and to render the unfruitful Hills as pleasant Valleys. The Pleasure of this may be more than guessed at, 
Illi etiam praedivites, qui ab aratro accersebantur, ut consules fierent Voluptatis causâ sterile atque aestuosum Pupiniae solum versabant.  when we consider the Prisca Gens, and Greatest Men of the first Age were enamoured with Agriculture: When Quintius Cincinnatus, and Marcus Curius, after they Triumphed in the Field, ran hastily to their Farms, and counted themselves more Happy, and no less Honourable, with the Mattock and Spade in their Hand, as when they had the Sword and Sceptre. The many Encomia of Poets, Orators, etc. of the Blessedness of a Rural Life, and pleasant Divertisements of a little well til'd Spot, confirm this.  
Now Sir, if you shall please to remit a little while your graver Studies, lay by your Plouden and consult Columella, and shall honour these Directions with your experiment, you will find sensible Arguments of Profit and Pleasure, strong enough to oblige you to spend a good part of your Vacation on the Blow.  
I have been emboldened to prefix your Worthy Name to this Little Book, knowing you a Person able to Protect and Vindicate both It and the Author, and one who will Pardon the little Errors that your piercing Eye shall find, and will accept kindly of the Endeavours for Public Good, of  
Hackney, April 14 th'. 1670. Sir, Your Obliged Friend, Gabriel Reeve.   

To my Sons.  
My Sons,  
I Leave this short ensueing treatise to you as a Legacy, if I shall not live myself, to show you (what is therein written) by examples, which I know instruct far more, than precepts, yet precepts from a dying Father instructing of his children what he hath seen, and known, and received credible information of, from witnesses free from all exceptions, should make such impression on them, as at least to believe, their Father writ what he thought was true, and therefore suppose those things worthy to be put in practice by them which he himself would have done if it had pleased God to have granted him life, and liberty; especially seeing the matter itself which is required by him to be done is in show so profitable, and so easy to be effected, and with so little charge, considering the great gain that is proposed by it, as that not any thing can restrain a rational man from trial thereof, but not giving credit to the relator.  
The whole discourse shows you how to improve Barren and Heathy Land, and how to raise more than ordinary profit thereof, by such ways, and means, as are not practised in England, but as commonly in some parts of Brabant, and Flanders, as the Husbandry of Wheat, and Rye is here. By that means you may nobly augment your estates, and will receive so much the more profit and praise, by how much with more industry and diligence you govern your affairs, and will not only be imitated but also honoured by your neighbours, when they shall see your labours prosper so far, as to convert Barren and Heathy Ground, left unhusbanded for many ages, into as commodious arable Land, rich Pastures, and Meadows, as any be in the Kingdom. And certainly that man is wrthy of praise, and honour, who being possessor of a large and barren demeans, constrains it by his labour and industry to produce extraordinary fruit, which redounds not only to his own particular profit, but also to the public benefit.  
Cato saith, it is a great shame for a man not to leave his inheritance greater to his Successors than he received it from his predecessors; and that he despiseth the liberalities of God, who by sloathfulness loseth that which his land may bring forth, as not seeming willing to reap the fruits which God hath offered him. Nay he threatens the crime of high treason to those that do not augment their Patrimony, so much, as the increase surmounts the principal. It is a thing much celebrated by antiquity, and thought the noblest way, together wealth, for to employ one's Wit and Money, upon his Land, and by that means to augment his estate.  
If you observe the common course of things you will find, that husbandry is the end which men of all estates in the World do point at.  
For to what purpose do Soldiers, Scholars, Lawyers, Merchants, and Men of all Occupations and Trades, toil and labour with great affection but to get Money, and with that Money when they have gotten it, to purchase Land, and to what end do they buy that Land, but to receive the fruits of it to live, and how shall one receive the fruits of it but by his own husbandry, or by a Farmers: So that it appears by degrees, that what course soever a man taketh in this World, at last he cometh to husbandry, which is the most common occupation amongst men, the most natural, and holy, being commanded by the mouth of God to our first Fathers.  
There is care and diligence requisite in husbandry, as there is in all the actions of the World; and therefore as a Captain hath a Lieutenant to command his Soldiers in his absence, or for his ease, so must you provide some honest able man to whom you will commit the execution of such things as you yourselves cannot do without too much labour, whereof you must often take an account, and confer with him as occasion shall require about your business, that nothing may be left undone, for want of providence; to such a man you must give good wages, with intent to advance your own gain, and take the more ease by reason of his honesty and knowledge.  
You will find this Husbandry (after you have once had experience of it) to be very pleasing to you, and so exceeding profitable, that it will make you diligent: For no man of any art or science, except an Alchemist, ever pretended so much gain any other way as you shall see demonstrated in this ensueing treatise.  
The Usurer doubles but his principal with Interest upon Interest in seven years, but by this little treatise you shall learn how to do more than triple your principal within the compass of one year.  
And you shall see how an industrious man in Brabant and Flanders would bring five hundred acres of barren and heathy Land, that was not worth at the most above fifty pound a year to be worth seven thousand pound a year, in less time than seven years. I know no reason why the like may not be done in England, for we are under as good a Climate, as they are; Our Heathy Land that is neither Sand, nor Loam, is as good a soil, as their barren ground is; We have not only Dung to enrich our Land, but also Lime, and Marle, of which they know not the use (where they sow their gainfullest Commodities mentioned in this ensueing treatise,) nor of any other Manure, but only dung. In fine, I am certain there is none of their Commodities but grow in England as they do in Brabant, and Flanders, but ours are not of the same kind as theirs, nor put to the same use, what cannot be vented at home may as well be vented from hence into Holland, as the like commodities are from Flanders thither. I will say no more of this subject in the preface, only it remains to tell you that you must not expect either Eloquence, or Method in this ensueing treatise, but a true story plainly set forth in the last Will and Testament of your Father, which he would have you execute; but before all things to be sure you lay the foundation of your husbandry, upon the blessing of Almighty God, continually imploring his Divine Aid, and assistance in all your labours; for it is God that gives the increase, and believing this, as the quintessence and soul of husbandry, Primum quaerite Regnum Dei, et postea haec omnia adjicientur Vobis. These things being briefly premised, I will leave the rest to this short ensueing Treatise, and commit you all with a Father's blessing to the protection and providence of Almighty God.   

Directions FOR IMPROVEMENT Of Barren and Heathy Land.  
IT is a certain thing that the chiefest and fundamentallest point in husbandry, is to understand the nature and condition of the Lands that one would till, and sow it with such seeds as it will produce, either naturally or by art, which may turn a man to the greatest profit, and advantage.  
I did think I had understood that point (when I went out of England) after 30 years' experience in husbandry, and having improved my Land as much as any man in this Kingdom had done both by Water, and Fire.  
But after I had been a while in Brabant and Flanders, I found I was to learn a new lesson in point of husbandry, for that the barrenest, heathy and sandy Lands in those Countries did produce richer Commodities by an ordinary way of husbandry there in practice, than the strongest and richest grounds that were in both those Countries.  
When I first arrived at Dunkirk and went to Bridges, which was near forty miles, I saw as rich a Country as ever my eyes beheld, stocked with goodly wheat and barley, and excellent meadows and pastures; The soil began to alter into worse midway, between Bridges and Gaunt, which were 24 English miles asunder, and so soon as I was past Gaunt in my journey towards Antwerp, I did see such Land for about twenty miles together, that I cannot compare to any ground more like than the Land by Sandy Chapel three miles distant from Kingston upon Thaines, a great part of the highways out of the road and tract of Horses, and Carts, did bear heath, and such enclosures on the inside of the ways which were not kept in tillage, did either produce heath or broom, of their own natures.  
The soil did not much amend until I came within two miles of Antwerp, which was thirty English miles from Gaunt. There I saw a goodly Marsh or feeding ground for , which was kept with a strong bank for being overflowed by the river of Sceld, under which notwithstanding there lay sluices to let in the water when they pleased, and ditches were made in the Marsh to convey it back into the River at low tides when they thought fit.  
On the other side of Antwerp was contribution land lying in Brabant, which naturally was as barren and apt to heath as any land betwixt that City and Gaunt: I stayed not long at Antwerp before I returned to Gaunt, and diligently reviewing of the Country as I went back, I could find no other corn to grow there, than rye, Oats and French wheat, which seemed a sufficient testimony to me of the barrenness of the soil, which would neither bear wheat, barley, or Pease, and for that the former Grains did usually grow in England upon the edge of forests and heathy grounds.  
A few days after my return, I fell into discourse with a dutch Merchant then living at Gaunt, but had lived some years in England, and told him that I did not think all Flanders had yielded so much barren ground, as I had seen between Gaunt, and Antwerp.  
He answered me, that that Land was the richest part of all Flanders.  
I smiled to hear him say so, thinking at first he had jested, and I replied that I believed that one acre of Land between Bridges and Dunkirk, was worth ten acres of any land I saw there between Gaunt and Antwerp; (excepting the Marsh land and some little straps of Meadow by the river side) for the one did bear goodly Wheat, Barley, and Pease, and was in many places naturally excellent meadow & pasture, and the other would carry no other Corn but Rye, French Wheat and oats, and would never bear any considerable grass, but turned presently after it was laid down to heath or broom.  
The Merchant told me again that their best commodities were pulled and cut before I went that way, but he would prove that that Land did yield more profit yearly than the best Land in Flanders, and that the Boors (for so they term their Farmers) were richer there than in any part of the Country.  
I must confess at first, I thought his discourse to be some kind of riddle, but seeing him earnest in affirming that which seemed strange to me, I desired him to explain himself, how it was possible, that that Land should yield more profit than the other.  
I will tell you said he the reason; why it yieldeth more profit is, because that Land is natural to bear Flax, (which is called the wealth of Flanders) and one acre of good Flax is worth four or five acres of the best corn which groweth between Dunkirk and Bridges, and after the Flax is pulled, it will presently bear a crop of turnips, which may be better worth, acre for acre, than the best corn in the Country.  
After that crop is off, about April following you may sow the same land with Oats, and upon them Clover-grass-seed only harrowing it with bushes which will come up after the Oats are mowed, and that year yield you a very great pasture till Christmas; and the next year following you may cut that grass three times, and it will every time bear such a burden, and so good to feed all sorts of , as the best meadows in the Country do not yield the like, and will continue good four or five years together without sowing it.  
After this we parted, at first I wondered much at his discourse, but much more at the ignorance or sloathfulness of our Country, which being near to Flanders; and many Merchants and Gentlemen travelling thither daily; none should understand, or at least put in practice these husbandries, there being so much barren and heathy Land in England of very little value, which might by following their example in these husbandries be made more profitable than the best land in this Kingdo●.  
I after pondered what the Merchant said, all that day and the next, and then began to imagine with myself, what a huge improvement I might make of my own estate, if these things were true which he had told me, and if God almighty pleased to permit me quietly to enjoy it.  
And to be further satisfied, I sent to another dutchman in the Town that had been in England, with whom I was grown acquainted, and desired him to inform himself from some of the Boors in the Country, whether those things the Merchant had affirmed to me were true; he returned me an answer from three or four whom he said he knew to be honest men and understanding in those husbandries; that a gammet of flax, which was their acre, but somewhat more in quantity than ours, might well produce 40 or fifty pounds worth of flax, if the land were well dunged and husbanded, and sowed with good east-Country seed, and that it pleased God to send convenient rain after it was sowed, and a seasonable time till harvest; these were no other conditions, than I conceived all other seed and grain to be subject to, either for to prove good or bad.  
And for the other questions wherein I desired to be satisfied, concerning the Turnips and Clover-grass, he told me, they did concur in all with the Merchant without any other condition or limitation.  
The Winter after, I did examine divers persons upon like questions, which I thought did understand that business, and found very little difference in their relations.  
And in April following, which was the chiefest time for sowing of flax and clovergrass-seed, I did often walk into the fields, a mile or more out of the Town, and expostulated the business with the Boors, when they were sowing of flax and clover-grass-seed, and afterwards observed that these things did prosper very well on such ground as I conceived to be extreme barren of its own nature.  
But further to inform myself more fully what an acre of flax might be worth, I bought an English Rod of flax when it was grown up, neither the best nor worst, and caused it to be pulled, watered, and dressed by itself, than valued it as flax was sold the week following in the Market at Gaunt and the seed likewise; afterwards I cast up what eight rod, which was an acre, would rise unto according to that valuation, and I found that it came to 36 pounds 14 shillings 6 pence; and though by that rate an acre did not come to forty pounds, yet it made me believe that an acre of good flax might be worth forty pounds and more; for that which I tried was but indifferent flax.  
I went presently afterwards to Antwerp, and saw almost every third or fourth field by the highway-side for 25 miles together stocked with goodly flax, far beyond that which I bought to make my trial off, whereof some was pulled, and the rest was ready to pull.  
The similitude of a great quantity of land I had in England unto theirs in Flanders and Brabant which I saw did bear their richest commodities, and my loss in England both of Personal and Real estate, made me inquire after all husbandries of those Countries, of such as I conceived could any way instruct me that I might learn something or other whereby to repair my fortunes, if hereafter it pleased almighty God to give me leave to enjoy my own estate in peace again.  
And being one day in company of some Merchants, it happened that discourse fell out about improvement of their barren ground, I said that I had a great quantity of barren and heathy land in England that I thought might easily be brought to bear flax, turnips, and clover-grass, as well as their barren lands did in Flanders and Brabant.  
To which a Merchant answered, that he would carry me to a man within three miles of Antwerp who had taken a Farm upon improvement, which was just such Heathy Land as I described mine to be, for he was about five years since to have bought it, and when he saw it all Heath he would not meddle with it, but the Farmer had so improved it already, that he had now growing upon it a Nursery of twelve acres of all sorts of trees, as Pear-trees, Appletrees, Cherry-trees, Chestnut and Walnut-trees, Oaks, Ashes, Elms and the like, he had there also growing both Flax, Turnips, and Clover-grass, Roman-beans, and most sorts of Corn, and he had planted a hopground and an Orchard, he said he would tell me what husbandry he used to make such a strange conversion, and that I could not please him better than to come see it and applaud his husbandry, and he did assure me that it was worth my Journey and to be informed from him, for never a man in that Country could better instruct me than he, and I will (said he) go thither with you when you please.  
I thanked him very kindly for his offer, and told him I would wait upon him thither to morrow morning, it was agreed between us, and some others that were there said, they would wait of us both to see this wonder.  
But I asked him before we parted what that taking a Farm upon improvement was which he before did speak of, he answered, that when another had bought the Land, this man offered more rend than he could make of it at that time, to have a Lease for twenty one years, upon condition, that whatsoever four indifferent persons, whereof two to be chosen by the one and two by the other, should judge the Farm to be improved above the rent, at the end of his lease the owner was to pay so much in value to the tenant for his improveing of it.  
I told him it was a way of letting land I never knew of before, he answered it was an ordinary way with them of letting such barren land as men could not tell how to manage themselves.  
The next day we went thither, and the first thing we saw was his Nursery of trees which did grow and prosper very well, and he made account they would yield him ten thousand pounds before his lease was expired, and as I remember he valued them one with another but at two shillings a tree.  
Then I saw a little close of Flax, which I esteemed to be about three English acres, of which Flax he told me the Merchant that brought me thither before I came from Antwerp, that he had made one hundred and fifty pounds which was by computation fifty pound an acre.  
I also saw growing there very good turnips, and excellent clovergrass which he valued to be then worth 12 pounds an acre.  
I after saw it cutting the first day of June one thousand fix hundred fifty four being then two foot long and very thick, and went thither again the twenty ninth day of the same month, and saw the same grass grown up, and then cutting again, being twenty inches long.  
I saw it cutting again, in August following being then eighteen inches long, I viewed the grounds round about and found the skirts of the closes left unplowed, to be heath, and both he and the Merchant affirmed, all the rest where his flax, and clover-grass grew, was heath but three years before.  
I was very inquisitive of him to know what husbandry he used to the Land for to convert it from Heath, to bear such rich commodities.  
He told me, first he broke it up with a strong Teem of Horses, than ploughed it cross afterwards tore of the Heath with a great Harrow, than gathered it up and burned it, and laid about twenty loads of dung upon an acre, and spread it upon the land, than ploughed it again, and sowed the first crop with Rye, the next with Oats, and when he had harrowed his oats, he sowed clover-grass-seed upon them, which he harrowed with a bundle of bushes, under his harrow, and that came after the oats was of, to be a very good pasture before Michaelmas, and this third year he had mowed the clover-grass thrice as I had seen, and it would come to a very good pasture quickly to feed till Christmas, and the same he thought he should do for three years more, but afterwards the ground would turn to an ordinary grass, he said he used his ground where his flax grew as his other, but first again about half the quantity of dung he did at first, and then sowed it with flax, and upon the flax, clovergass-seed, as he had done before upon the oats: his Roman beans, his hops and orchard thrived very well, and all with the same quantity of dung proportionably used, for there they know no other Manure.  
I asked him how he could make twelve pound of an acre of this clover-grass, He said either by feeding  or keeping Kine, or laying it for feed, after the first out, for an acre of it being made part into Hay, and the rest fed green, would keep four Kine Winter and Summer, and an acre laid for seed might carry five bushels, which valued at six pence a pound came to eight pound sterling besides the first and second cuts 〈◊〉 grass, and hay, and the after-pasture: He said the best time for sowing flax, and clover-gras-seeds was about the beginning of April presently afer a shower of rain, some continue sowing of flax until the end of May, and some sow after, though I know no cause to commend their slowness in sowing of it so late.  
I was not very inquisitive after his other Commodities, I saw by his Turnips which he sowed upon his Heathy Land at his first breaking up, that he differed in that point from all other Husbandmen in those Countries, who sowed them immediately after Rye, or Flax, but those things are left to every one's experience to proceed therein as he thinks best according to his own observation.  
Now what I had observed here, and between Gaunt and Antwerp; my reason told 〈◊〉 (groundded upon some former experience) that there was no land that naturally bore Heath, being it her of a Sandy or Loamy mould, but might by devoushi●●ing first, which I prefer before their husbandry in Flanders, whereunto adding some thing, or lime, or marl in fit proportion as shall be hereafter expressed, may be made better than the best land that Flanders or England doth afford▪ For no man with reason can deny, but that land is best which will bring forth such commodities as will yield money to make one wealthy, and rich.  
For though Wealth, and riches, may consist either in , corn householdstuff, or plate, jewels, yet when those things are valued, we commonly say they are worth so much money; So Regina pecunia, money is the Queen that commands all.  
Now if the same quantity of acres of poor Heathy land, by producing flax, turnips, and clover-grass will yield more money than the rich Land which beareth Wheat, Barley, Meadow, and good pasture; then by consequence it followeth that the poor land is better than the rich.  
And I suppose that they find by experience in Flanders, that their rich Land will naturally bear those Commodities, otherwise they could not be ignorant that they do so far exceed their best Corn, and Meadows, in matter of profit, which appeareth clearly by their own valuations, for they value an acre of flax may be worth forty or fifty pounds, an acre of Turnips worth eight or ten pounds, an acre of clover-grass worth 10 or 12 pounds; whereas they value their best Barley may be worth ten or twelve pounds an acre, their best Wheat may be worth five or six pounds an acre, and their best Meadow worth four or five pounds an acre.  
Now if you compare the value of these commodities together, supposing the rich Land will not bear the other which are the richer commodities so well as the poor, you must needs conclude the Poorer Land to be the better.  
And it is a strong argument to me, that their rich Land will not bear those rich commodities so naturally as the Heathy and Sandy Land doth, for though I went often between Bridges and Dunkirk, which is thirty nine miles being the richest Land in Flanders, and where there is goodly Wheat, Barley, and Meadows as ever my eyes beheld, yet I never saw in all that ground to my remembrance one acre of flax, turnips or clover-grass; whereas on the contrary between Gaunt and Antwerp which is thirty miles, and the poorest Land in all the Country, much like Sandy-Chappel in Surrey, or some part of the Heathy Land in Windsor Forrest, I have seen many hundreds of acres of goodly flax, turnips, and clover-grass, close by the highway side, and their corn there not any thing but Rye, French Wheat, and Oats.  
It is not only dung that causeth the fertility in those barren Heathy and Sandy Lands for to bring forth those rich commodities, but partly the nature of those seeds which do delight to grow rather in a light and gentle Land, than in one too stiff and heavy, though it is true that dung is of that virtue, that it heats, fattens, sweetens and reclaims all barren grounds, and unslacked Lime and Marl are of as great an efficacy, being proportionably tempered with earth and ashes, and of longer continuance to enrich Land, as I will show hereafter.  
But because some will say that the burning of the turf, (which we call devonshireing,) will make the ground the worse after three years, I do most confidently affirm upon my own experience, that with the addition of dung, or lime, or marl, in fit proportions, that there is no such husbandry in the world perfectly to prepare any Heathy land, and make it nourish, receive, and ripen seeds.  
For the earth is as it were renewed by the fire having no other roots in the entrails of it, produceth nothing for many years but what one sows upon it, and shall remain vigorous enough to serve as long as one of knowledge and understanding will desire it.  
And therefore I shall advise you to prefer this husbandry upon your Heathy land before any other, though they have no other manner to mend their land but dung, in the barren and heathy land in Flanders & Brabant, yet they have a very fine way in Brabant to raise a great quantity of dung, the practice whereof may much advance the improvement of St. leonard's Forrest: They that keep sheep there upon the Heaths, houze them every night, and in the summer at noon, first having laid three or four inches of sand at the bottom of the floor whereon they lodge their sheep for a night or two, which tread their dung and piss into the sand, and so daily they use more sand to be used in the same manner, until the quantity be grown so great, that the sheep cannot conveniently go in or out.  
Then they cast that out of the house, and put in more sand, and so proceed throughout the year, and by this means three or four hundred sheep will raise a thousand loads of dung in a year, and eight hundred sheep, two thousand loads, which allowing twenty loads to an acre, will dung an hundred acres yearly, and this dung by experience doth mightily improve such Heathy land as St. leonard's is.  
Besides there is marvel in most parts of the forests, I account any Mine that is free from stones, and lieth so thick as it is worth the digging, and near and convenient to carry to your land, and of a clammy substance when it is wet, though it seem only Clay, or Loam, yet to be Marle, and very good Manure for sandy and heathy land, be it of what colour it will, as either grey, yellow, or blue, and forty loads of it laid upon an acre in summer and presently spread, and so let lie all winter, to incorporate with the earth, than devonshired the next March, and spread upon the Land and sowed, will mightily improve it.  
I did use six acres thus, that was nothing but heath, and had two crops of Corn from it and the third year it came of itself to be as good grass as ever I saw grow in any Meadow in England.  
I saw another great improvement in Clement Stokes his Farm adjoining to the Forest, he had Land that he let out two years together for twelve pence an acre, at last he devonshired it, and caused his hills before they were burnt to be set a just rod square one from another, and when they were burnt, he put a peck of unslacked lime into every Hill, which being eightscore Hills upon an acre took up just a load of lime which was forty bushels, this lime being slacked in the Hills with the first rain was mingled together with the ashes, and then spread upon the land, and after sowed with wheat, and brought as good as any was in the Country, brought next year a very good crop of Oats, and the year following came to as good Grass as any he had to his Farm.  
This I hold to be the cheapest husbandry, because four or five load of Fernes of which there is store in the Forest being cut from the beginning of July to the middle of August, will burn off twelve loads of chalk to lime, and though your chalk cost dear the bringing thither, yet the lime will not stand you in twelve shillings a load, and by this way you save much carriage, and so by consequence may compass to Manure yearly much more Land.  
As for example, you carry but one load of lime to your land, whereas by the other ways you must carry twenty loads of dung, and forty loads of Marle; so as by the lime, if that will do as well, you may lime twenty acres as soon as you can dung one acre, and forty acres for one with Marle.  
But I advise you to make trial yourselves of all these several husbandries, and then to follow that which you find cheapest and best. I have set down at large how I came first to know these husbandries, and how I was satisfied in the partiuclars.  
I have also set down three several ways to improve your land, now I will lay down the charge of each in severalty, then cast up the profit from one acre to five and twenty acres, then to fifty, and so to an hundred acres, by which it shall appear, that by an ordinary way of husbandry according to the value which they make of like commodities in Flanders, how that by improving a hundred acres of Heathy land every year, as namely of St. leonard's Forrest, and sowing the seeds of Flax, Turnips, and Clover-grass; you may in 5 years improve five hundred acres to be worth above seven thousand pounds a year, the particular Charge of an acre of Flax is as followeth.  
First the devonshireing of an acre 1. l.  
A Load of Lime to put into the Hills 12 s.  
The Ploughing and Harrowing of an acre 6 s.  
Three bushels of Flax-seed at 13 s. 4 d. the bushel 2 l.  
The Weeding of an acre 1 s.  
Pulling and Binding an acre 10 s.  
Graffing the seed from the Flax 6 s.  
Watering, Drying, swingling, and Beating the Flax of 9 hundred Weight upon an acre 4 l. 10 s.  
This is the utttermost charge that I could learn. So the whole cometh to 9 l. 5 s.  
Nine hundred pound Weight of flax upon an acre at 8 stivers the pound, which was an ordinary price in Gaunt when I was there, together with the seed, valued to be worth 40 l.  
Now if you deduct 15 s. an acre more towards charges, or losses the account being already 10 l. an acre, short of the value of their best flax, yet remains above all charges clear for an acre 750 l.  
By the same account you will be at 500 l. charge for 50 acres, and then receive at 40 l. an acre 2000 but clear above all charges but 1500 l.  
The like account of 1000 l. charge for 100 acres, you receive upon the account of 40 l. an acre 4000 l. but clear above all charges 3000 l.  
This thousand pound charge for 100 acres is only supposed in case you lay out all the charge before you receive any money for part of your flax, but before you are out 700 l. some money will come in for flax continually, so as indeed you shall not go out above seven hundred pound at all in stock, and after the first years profit is come in, you cannot account that you are out any thing from your purse, because you have your full stock again, and three thousand pound more.  
But this is not all the profit you are to expect from your hundred acres the first year, for after the flax is pulled which will be either in July or August, the same land may be sowed with turnips & prove according to the Flanders account worth eight pound an acre over and above all charges, so twenty five acres cometh to two hundred pounds, fifty acres to four hundred pounds and a hundred acres to eight hundred pounds.  
They sow in Flanders but two pound and a half of Turnep-seed upon an acre, which was worth when I was there, but twelve pence, and blow it once after the flax is pulled, they harrow it, and weed it if there be cause, and that is all their charge concerning that business.  
Both these crops are sowed, ripe and ready to be pulled within eight months; that is between the beginning of April and the end of November, so the profit of one hundred acres the first year cometh to besides all charges and this account unto 3800 l.  
And the hundred pounds allowed for charges may very well come into your purse again within the other four months.  
When the turnips are pulled I would have the same hundred acres made ready again to be sowed with Clover-grass-seed alone, about the beginning of April than next following (therein altering the custom of Brabant and Flanders, which is to sow it immediately either with or after corn, for I found by experience in Hereford-shire, that it will thrive much better the first year and turn to more profit alone, than a crop of Oats, and it sowed together will do.  
The charge of an acre is first ploughing and harrowing about 5 s.  
Ten pound of seed as it cost me at Antwerp 1645 but 6 d. a pound 5 s.  
Cutting the grass twice making the Hay and threshing out the seed about 1 l. 10 s.  
So the whole charge is 2 l.  

The second years Profit.  
Which being deducted, there remains clear for one acre according to the Brabant and Flanders account 10 l. which for 25 acres cometh to 250 l. for 50 acres to 500 l. and for 100 acres to 1000 l. Then 100 acres more must be devonshired, and sowed with flax, and turnips as is before expressed which with God's Blessing may yield the like profit 3800 l. whereto the 100 l. abovementioned for clover-grass being added, the whole profit of the second years from 200 acres amounteth to 4800 l.   

The third years Profit.  
Then the last 100 acres sowed with flax, and turnips, must be sowed as before with clover-grass-seed, which according to the former account coming to 1000 l. and 100 acres more devonshired as formerly, and sowed with flax and turnips yielding the like profit of 3800 l. as is before specified, adding thereunto the 200 acres of clover-grass; the whole profit of the third year is 5800 l.   

The fourth years Profit.  
That the 100 acres sowed before with flax, and turnips, must be sowed as formerly with clover grass-seeds, which yielding 1000 l. according to the former accounts, and another hundred acres devonshired as formerly and sowed with flax and turnips, and yielding like profit of 3800 l. and adding thereunto the 300 acres formerly sowed with clover-grass-seed makes the whole profit of the fourth year 6800 l.   

The fifth years Profit.  
Then the last 100 acres sowed with flax and turnips must be sowed as before with clover-grass-seed, which yielding like profit of 1000 l. and another 100 acres devonshired as formerly and sowed with flax and turnips, yielding the like profit of 3800 l. thereto adding the 400 acres formerly sowed with clover-grass-seed, makes the whole profit of the fifth year 7800 l.  
Thus have I plainly shown what I promised in my Preface, that was, how an industrious man in Brabant and Flanders would convert 500 acres of barren and heathy Land from little value, in 5 years to be worth above 7000 l. a year.  
You see you have better means to mend your Land than they have, your Land lieth in a manner under the same Climate, for Chicester and Mecklin are in one degree, the soil is much alike as I have showed; you may have as good a vent for your commodities as they have for theirs, if you please, and therefore I do not know what reason can hinder you from putting these things in practice, you may continue this yearly profit of 7800 l. a year upon this 500 acres, if you will, by liming, dunging, or marling, and devonshireing: again the first 100 acres laid down with clover-grass, and sowing it with flax and turnips, as before, and so go round with every hundred acres as formerly in its course, but having great store of barren and heathy ground, you were better improve that, and let the clover-grass continue as long as it will.  
And if after 5 years' continuance it turneth to a mingled grass, yet that will be as good as most meadows and pastures that I know in England, for it turns commonly from a red honeysuckle to a white, which we repute the sweetest grass, although it doth not carry the greater burden, and I am persuaded it will continue longer, if it be kept for seed, and cut but twice, whereas they commonly cut it thrice a year in Flanders, always in the Sap, which will kill Fern.  
Now I will show you how they vent those Commodities, that you may learn the better how to vent yours.  
First they make great store of Linen themselves, and sell it most for London; what they make not in Cloth they have a Market of every Thursday at a place called S. Nicholas, almost midway between Antwerp and Gaunt, whither Merchants come of purpose to buy it, and send it into Holland, and there sell it at dear rates.  
I met with a Linen-draper of London when I was at Gaunt, and questioning him what vent there was for flax at London, he told me that before these troublesome times, if I had had a very great quantity he could have helped me to chapmen to have bought it off at dearer rates at London, than usually they sold it at in Flanders, for he said he did believe there was no less than 100000 l. worth of flax brought yearly into England from foreign parts, a great part whereof to his knowledge, was sent from London into Lancashire, there made into Cloth, and afterwards brought back in cloth and sold in London, and if times grew peaceable again in England, he told me I need not doubt the venting of more flax at London than ever I would have to sell. And two honest English Merchants of my acquaintance did assure me, that if I could not sell my flax at London to my content, they would transport it for me into Holland, where I might sell it dearer than they sold their flax in Flanders; for Merchants usually sent for flax out of Flanders, and sold it again in Holland at dearer rates than they paid for it there.  
But if you find that these commodities thrive with you, & you grow rich by them, I would advise you to send for some workmen out of Flanders that understand the Manufacture of linnen-cloth, and make your own flax in linnen-cloth, you cannot choose but gain by it exceedingly, when you are aforehand with the world, if they live by it who fetch it first from London into Lancashire by land being made in cloth, recarry it up; and besides, you shall do a charitable deed, by bringing in that Manufacture into the Kingdom, for it keeps a very great number of poor women and children at work in Flanders and Holland, that otherwise would not have means to live; So by this way you should be sure to vent your flax, and withal procure a public benefit to the Kingdom.  
The Husbandry of Turnips is as common between Gaunt and Antwerp as that of flax, for as there is more flax sowed there, than of any other grain or corn, so commonly after the flax is pulled, immediately they sow Turnips, and presently after, their Rye, what they do not eat themselves, they give unto their , they will feed Oxen, and Kine, as fat as Hay and Oats, the roots being clean washed, and then roots and leaves being put into a trough, and there stamped together with a spitter, and after boiled in water and given to Kine, will make them abound with milk, yet grow so fat withal, that you would wonder at it.  
The only difficulty is to make your  eat them at first, but breed them up by hand, as they do there: others do the same already; in many parts in England they will take turnips and eat, or any other thing that you will give them.  
To encourage you the more to sow turnips, I will demonstrate to you what an acre of them transplanted may be worth by calculation, as they are sold in London. They commonly there sell four or five turnips in a bunch for a penny. A rod square being sixteen foot and a half may bear 1089 turnips, being set at half a foot distance the one from the other.  
Now suppose that 1000 cometh to good, and five sold for a penny; then a rod of them amounts to 16 s. 8 d. and an acre of them being eightscore rod by the same account comes to above 30 l. and therefore certainly 100 acres sowed, may very well be valued at 8 l. an acre one with another, when you have brought your  to eat them as theirs do.  
I told you before how in Brabant and Flanders they made twelve pound an acre of their Clover-grass, either by feeding , keeping Kine, or by the seed, which commonly increasing to 5 bushels upon an acre, was worth 8 l. when it was sold but at 6 d. a pound, but being sold for 2 s. a pound (which price I myself now paid for it) the value of the seed quadruples from 8 l. to 32 l. an acre, and the man that sold me seed this year for 2 s. a pound, desires to buy all that I can spare the next year at the same price, if you get but into the best kind of those they use in Flanders.  
For when your neighbours see your labours thrive and prosper, so far as to convert your land which bore nothing but Heath for many ages, first into excellent flax, then into such delicate turnips as they never saw before, or tasted, and to end with such Clover-grass, as they will admire, when they once see your Crops, and somewhat understand that you do reap some benefit by them, they will come to you as to an Oracle to ask your Counsel, and be instructed, and desire it from you as a favour at first, to buy your seed at any reasonable price.  
But if you find that you have more seed of flax and turnips, (if you will let them grow to seed) than you can vent, you must then set up either a Water-mill, or Windmill, as they do in Flanders, and make them into Oil, both which seeds make good Oil, which you may be sure to sell in London at good rates.  
And for your Clover-grass-seed, if you find you cannot sell it to your content, you may choose whether you will let it grow to seed or not, and if you do not let it grow to seed, you may cut it once more in a year than otherwise you could do.  
You must change your flax-seed, though never so good at first, after four years, the other seeds do not so much require it.  
I doubt not but these things will seem as strange to you at first, as they did to me, and therefore I desire you nothing, but to try what I propose, upon such profitable terms, as no man that is well in his wits, but will venture at them, being laid down so plainly to you, as a child may understand them.  
You may observe that flax, turnips, and clover-grass already grow in England, but there is a much difference between what groweth there and here, as is between the same thing which groweth in a garden, and that which groweth wild in the fields.  
To prevent what may be strange or troublesome to you at first, for want of knowledge, I would advise you to send to Tom or Robin to Gaunt, where, by means of some of their old acquaintance there, they may provide you a servant who understands these several Husbandries, as well as any of ours do the Husbandry in getting Corn, and by observing of his practice, you yourselves, or whom you will appoint, may be sufficiently instructed in a year or two; so far as to command such things to be done by others, a● are not fit and necessary to be done by you yourselves.  
Besides the excessive profit you will reap by sowing those Commodities, imagine what a pleasure it will be to your eyes and scent, to see the Russet Heath turned into Greenest Grass, which doth produce most sweet and pleasant smelling Honeysuckles, and what praise and reputation you will gain by your examples, first introducing that into your Country, which being followed by others, must needs redound unto the general benefit of the whole Kingdom.  
I do by my Will Command you for to execute no more, than what I would myself to morrow put in practice if I had liberty.  
You should then learn these things I have set down by examples, which now I am enforced to leave you as a Father's Precepts, and with a Father's blessing to you all, desiring God Almighty for to guide you, and direct you in all your Actions, I will leave you to His Divine Protection and Providence.   

To make Rushy Ground bear Grass.  
BReak the Rushy ground, and rake the roots and the Rushes together, and burn them or carry them away, then spread upon that Ground turf, ashes, or pigeon dung, chalk, or lime, according to your ground; try of every one of these upon a little plot of your ground, you may use other ashes, marl, or dung for experiences; and that which you find doth kill the Rushes and the other Weeds best, use it: you are to make gutturs, or drains to carry away the water from the ground, you may destroy Rushes, or Fern, if you will but cut, and mow them down, in the beginning of June, and so use to do it two or three years in June.   

For Planting and Sowing Walnuts.  
In the season when they are full ripe, on the trees, a few days before they will fall, as near as can be guessed, let them be gathered or beaten of; and in the green husk, or without it, put them into good ordinary earth, in a barrel, or basket: so let them continue until the beginning of March following; assoon as that month gins, get as much warm milk from the Cows, as will steep them, twenty four hours after they are steeped, set them in ground well digged, and judged natural for such fruit, with their little end, or their prickled sharp end upwards about three or four inches deep in the earth, and not one of twenty will fail, as hath appeared by experience.  
This may make dry Walnuts also prove trees. The Nuts used as abovesaid, as far as may be: Set them near one foot asunder, and in a right line, to weed them, the Walnut breeds good timber, good shadow, good smell, good fruit. At four years' growth transplant them.  
Note that Clover-grass-seed will be ripe about a Month after it appears in the husk.   
FINIS.