THE ART of Pruning Fruit-Trees, WITH AN EXPLANATION Of some Words which gardiner's make use of in speaking of Trees. AND A TRACT Of the Use of the FRUITS of TREES, For preserving us in Health, or for Curing us when we are Sick.  
Translated from the French Original, set forth the last Year by a Physician of Rochel.  
London, Printed for Tho. Basset, at the George near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, 1685.   

THE APPROBATION OF THE Colledge-Royal Of Physicians at ROCHEL.  
WE subsigned, Doctors of Physic of the Colledge-Royal of this Town, and deputed by our Company to Read and Examine a Book Composed by one of our Fellows, which has for Title, Of the use of the Fruits of Trees, do certify that there is nothing in it which is not conformable to good Physic. In Testimony of which we have subsigned this Approbation, at Rochel the 8th of March. 1683.  
Chauvet, Arault, Censors of the said College.   

THE PREFACE.  
THere are Persons who persuade themselves that its a crime to add any thing to Antiquity, and who say, That nothing can be invented of new more than what the Ancients have said; and that it is a vain Glory and Presumption to imagine we can say any thing which has not been written. But if it were free for me to Answer this Opinion, I would say, That Arts are not of those things to which nothing can be added, and that the Older the World grows, the more they are carried on to perfection. Anatomy did not appear in so great a Luster in the Time of Galen, as in our Days: and the Art of Pruning Fruit-trees was not so perfect in the Time of the Curate of Henonville, as at present. We are like a Dwarf on a Giants shoulders. We see much farther than our Fathers, and we daily discover things which they knew not. I will not say for this, that there are not any precepts or Rules found for Fruning Trees in the Books of Agriculture and Gardening which have been Printed within Twenty or Five and Twenty Years, I candidly own that there are some; but in truth they are so few in Number, and the greatest part so obscure, and so little to be relied on, that I very much doubt whether they may be followed without committing faults. If on the contrary you stick to those which I give in this Tract; many Years experience has assured me, that Trees Pruned according to the Rules which I Establish, will produce great Fruits in abundance. I have therefore reduced The Art of Pruning Fruit-Trees into four Chapters; and I have caused seven Figures to be Graved which I Judged necessary for the understanding of what I say: The first Chapter Treats of Pruning Trees in the Month of February. The second explains that of the beginning of May. The third teaches the Pruning at the end of May and the beginning of June. Lastly the Fourth comprises the Pruning of July. I thought fit to reduce this Book into a form of precepts, without forming a continued Discourse; because often we have need of one precept, without having need of another: and I have writ it after so popular a manner that the most Illiterate gardiner's might comprehend what I would say.  
Opus arduum nova Conscribere, Inaudita edocere, Insolentia praeceptis firmare, magis arduum aliquid Antiquitati addere.   

THE Art of Pruning, OR Lopping Fruit-Trees.  
I Suppose that a Tree has been well Planted, and set in a fertile Soil, that the Root of it has been well cut, that good choice has been made of the Plant and of its kind; and that it has some years' Growth, to be able to endure the Pruning-knife.  

CHAP. I. The Pruning or Lopping of Fruit-trees, for the Month of February.  
ALmost all Trees begin to sprout forth in France toward the end of February, or the beginning of March; and this is the motion which we call the rise of the Sap, or the shooting of Trees. This nevertheless happens variously, the disposition of the Air, the goodness of the Soil, the vigour or the kind of the Tree, make the Saps or shootings to come earlier or later: They come early in a dry year, and are backward in a moist.  
This rise of the Sap invites then gardiner's to Prune or Lop Trees in the Month of February, which is the most proper time for this work; and tho' it may be done all the Winter, however the Moon be disposed, Trees being then at rest as to their Branches; nevertheless it is much better to stay for this till the Colds are passed, and that the Rains no longer infest the wounds which are made on Trees; by this means they seal themselves in a little time, and soonner cover the wound which has been made on them.  
Before you Prune or Lop a Tree, you ought to consider the strength and kind of it for rendering it beautiful and fertile; for all Trees are not to be Lopped after the same fashion: We Lop diverly (for instance) a Peach-Tree and a Winter Pear-Tree; and it's by Lopping of this last, that the skill of the Gardener shows itself the most conspicuously, and that we judge best of his ability.  
There are Trees which we dare not Lop, by reasonof the abundance of their Sap; for the more we Lop them, the more Wood they shoot forth, and the less Fruit; even the Flower-buds yield Wood, which happens often to the Tree, which yields the delicate Pear called the little Rousselet; to the lateward Bergamot, to the Virgoleuse, to the St. Lezan, etc. But when these sorts of Trees have shot forth their full, after this they bear but too much. In this occasion Lop sometimes short, and sometimes long, or not at all: take away sometimes the young Wood, and preserve the old; another while cut away the old, for the Tree to grow young again; at another time cut away the Branches, and all the false Sprouts, but remember never to disgarnish the Stock, by Lopping away all the little Branches of the sides of the Tree, and making the Trunk bare.  
Gardiner's have a very true Maxim, Lop in fair Wether, in the decrease of the Moon, and in the end of the Saps, or rather when Trees are at rest.  
The decrease of the Moon of January, which happens in February, is the true time for Lopping Trees, and for preserving Grafts; not but this Rule has some exception; for weak Trees, and those that are Planted but of that year, aught to be Lopped at the new Moon, to make them sprout vigorously: And we must remember that Trees ought not to be cut when we Plant them, but we ought to stay till the Month of February following.  
When you Plant a Graft of three years, which has Flower-buds, preserve some to see the Fruit in the first year: It is of these sorts of Trees that you must always make choice, they show from their beginning an assured fruitfulness, and bear afterward a great deal of Fruit as long as they live.  
Because it is known that an abundance of Sap makes but Branches, and that a little or mean Sap makes Fruit: and moreover that the Moon has less influence on sublunary things, when she gins to be in the Wain, than when she Increases; experience has taught us that the decrease of the Moon is the most kindly time for Lopping Trees, which have then less of motion. The decrease is from the time of the Full to the New, nevertheless some will have it that we may Lop Trees during the time that the Moon is not horned, that is to say, from her eighth day to her one and Twentieth. They say that it is not only the Moon which causes Fruit on Trees, but the disposition of the Branches; and that it suffices that the Moon has strength, provided that on the other side she finds in a Branch, Fibres transverse and disposed to cause Fruit-buds to be there formed. True it is, experience has taught me that the Seeds of Flowers cast into the Earth during all this time, turn double sooner than those that are Sown in another time.  
We ought first to Lop Apricock, Nectarin, and Peach-trees, etc. because they shoot forth the first; the Winter Pear-trees follow next, after these those of Autumn and of Summer, and the Portugal Quince-trees: We ought shortly after to Lop and Prune Plum-trees, and Appletrees, and lastly Spanish Pomegranet-trees, because all these Trees shoot forth the one after the other; but above all, we ought not to Lop this last till it has shot forth a little, that we may the better distinguish the weak or dead Branches.  
After the Observations which we even now made, we ought to begin to Lop and Trim up a Tree by one of its sides from the lower part to the top, and we ought afterward to carry on our Work without confusion, and to take one Branch after the other. This side being thus Lopped and paled, we descend on the other side from the top to the bottom in the same Order.  
We must here remember always to cut the Branches in the form of a Hinds foot, so that the Sun may not dry the wound, which ought to be as far as we may on the North side; but after such a manner that the sloping side of the wound be not too strait downward, to the end that the knot be not endamaged; otherwise the eye which ought to push forth wood, being cut too much by the slope of a too straight descent (chief in tender Trees) will not push forth at all or weakly, and will communicate even to five or six eyes the evil of a wound ill made.  
We must further remember to cut always a Branch near a Wood-bud, and never near a Flower-bud; because in this last Lopping, the Fruit which would come there, would not be secured by the Leaves against the injury of the Air. Moreover the Branch would be exposed to the Air, and finally the wound would not close itself, nor ever come to an Eschar the Pears carrying away all the Sap, that aught to make it:  
We ought not moreover to leave a Stub to a Branch which we cut at a Wood-bud, that we may give way to the Branch to close itself in a short time by the sprout that ought to grow there; I say not the same of a Branch which we cut an Eye or two from the Trunk; this may put forth near the Stub, which we leave there, some Fruit. buds, or some Branches which will have dispositions to produce them, at least if the Branch be little or of a mean size; for if it be great, it ought to be cut near the Tree. If in Lopping where we leave a Stub, nothing shoots forth there, the year following the Stub must be cut smooth to the Tree.  
I speak not here only of Fruit with Kernels, we ought even to leave a Stub to Fruits with Stones, not to make them push forth Wood there, for this is not their Genius, but to keep them from being corrupted by the Wether, and not to cause them to push forth Gum there, which is their Sap, and in this occasion their Capital Enemy.  
When the little Branches are too confused, care must be taken to cut them off an Eye or two from the main Branch, or near the Trunk as I have said, both to disburden the Tree, and to make it push forth some Branches anew, but after such a manner, that there be always room for placing the Sprig which will come.  
We ought also to Observe that to fill out a Tree well, its Branches ought not to be distant from each other above a Finger's breadth.  
You must never cut Fruit-buds whatever reasons are alleged thereon; Trees at that time do what they are ordained for, by displaying their Riches, and Nature gives us what we demand of her for recompense of our cares and Labours.  
We know a Fruit-bud by its Figure, by the small bearer where it comes, by the motion it makes in the shoot of the Tree or finally by the abundance of Leaves that accompany it.  
If a little and long Branch be well stored with Flower-buds, do not cut any of them (I say it once again) and do not so much as touch the Branch, wait rather till the Flowers are come forth of the Bud to destroy them, or till the Fruit are kerned to cut with Scissors the Stems of the least and worst formed; by this means you will not cut away the Bud which will produce other Fruit the following years when the Branch has fortified itself.  
Nevertheless, if for some great reason, we are Obliged to cut Flower-buds in a Branch bared of shoots, for drawing thither the Sap, and to cause some void space to be filled, and that there are no other Branches found for supplying this Default, we must cut the Branch at a Wood-knot to fill out the Tree, and we must take good heed not to cut it near the Flower or Fruit-buds, for the reasons which we have mentioned, and after this we must take away the Fruit-buds to give it more strength to push forth.  
The old Buds which have yielded Fruit for many years together, and which give us no longer hope of producing more, must be cut away to embellish the Tree, and to disburden it of somewhat which is useless and superfluous.  
The bearers which are two, three, or four Inches long are the best, especially when they Issue from the great Branches near the top of the Tree; they bring forth many years one after the other, and bear very great Fruit. Those which are bared of Branches last indeed a long time; but they do not bear so Beautiful Fruit, and often they are drained, unless you cut the Stems of the Pears with Scissors; and those which are not above a nail in length, and which come from the Trunk, bring forth very great Fruit; but ordinarily they last but a year  
A Shoot of August never yields Fruit, the Wood is not then well filled with Sap, it ought always to be cut away, unless it be extremely necessary for filling a void space.  
If a useless or irregular Branch grows behind, it is always cut away, even tho' it has on it a Flower-bud; for the Fruit which would come of it, would be spoiled by the shadow of the Tree, and would be good for nothing: if it be before, we cut it an Eye or two from the Mother Branch, to try to make some Flower-buds spring forth there.  
A Branch bend by force bears much Fruit, but it is small, unless it were plied so the first year; the reason is evident, its Fibres are bend, and the Sap does not carry itself briskly to it.  
Sometimes forked sprouts, or knots of Scions shoot forth from certain places of Trees, when they are Old and at a stand that they need to be cut to renew them. In this occasion we ought to cut at a good length a Master Sprig in Pear-trees and Appletrees, and to cut some an Eye or two from the Mother Branch, and cut others near the Trunk, but in Nectarin and Peach-trees, we ought to cut all the lesser Branches an Eye or two from the Mother Branch, and let the longest and straightest run on, tho' it would be the shortest way in these last Trees, to cut a great Branch near the Trunk, or to cut the Trees two or three Finger's breadth from the Earth to renew them.  
You must cut one Branch short betwixt two long to fill out the Tree. The year following the short Branch must be cut long, and the long short: It is the secret to have much Fruit, and to preserve Trees; there are some who say that a Tree Lopped after that manner is not agreeable to behold: but I desire them to stay to consider them till the Month of May; and I am well assured they will change their sentiment.  
A Tree is ordinarily composed of three sorts of Branches, we find on it Ravenous or Prodigal, Indifferent, and Fertile.  
1. The Ravenous grow most commonly at the top of the Tree, and sometimes they spring from an Old Branch; they are finely even and without Moss, greater and more smooth than the others.  
2. The Indifferent are of a mean sort, among which there are sometimes some well supplied with Juice, they bearing sometimes Fruit within three or four years.  
3. The Fertile are ordinarily small, and growing athwart; sometimes there are found of them great and long; they always bear Fruit; there are counted five sorts of them.  
1. The first have in their source, and in the place whence they spring, little Wrinkles like Rings; which show that in this place there are transverse Fibres in the Wood It's in these Fibres where is made a slow circulation of the Sap of the Tree, which produces the Flower-bud, whereas when the Fibres are all straight, the Sap is carried upward vigorously and without resistance, and not staying itself in any place, it produces nought but Wood: We may Observe these transverse Fibres in cutting the Wood where there are of these Rings, the cut will not be close and even as elsewhere.  
The Figure following will Represent to you the Fertile Branch.  
Fig. 1  
A. The Wrinkles and Rings of a Branch of a Bon-Chrêtien Pear-tree.  
2. The Second Fertile sprouts have no Rings in their Origine, where they Issue from their Mother Branch; but they have in the middle, that is to say, when an Indifferent Branch, having not been cut in February, shoots forth Wood in May, and forms Wrinkles at the beginning of its shoot; or when a Branch in its middle forms Rings betwixt the end of its shoot of May, and the beginning of that of June, which may be known easily, if a Man will make the experiment; for in cutting the wood in this place, as I even now mentioned, the cut will not appear pear smooth as elsewhere, but uneven by the transverse Fibres that are there.  
The following Figure Represents the Second Fertile Branch in a Bon-Chrêtien.  
Fig. 2  
A. Rings, and Wrinkles at the beginning of the Shoot of May, or betwixt the end of the Shoot of May, and the beginning of that of June.  
3. The third kind of Fertile Branches Issues from a Flower-Bud, which has failed to blow sometimes for outward causes, and often through the abundance of the Sap of the Tree: They Issue also from a Bud which has yielded Pears; they are called Fertile, because they come of a Flower or Fruit-bud which experience discovers to us to have transverse Fibres.  
The third Figure shows it us in a little Branch with Flower and Fruit-buds of a Bon-Chrêtien.  
Fig. 3  
A. The Bud which has yielded Pears, or has failed to blow.  
B. The Fertile Branch which we must let grow on.  
C. The lesser Branch which we must cut away.  
D. Where it ought to be cut at two knots.  
E. The Bearer.  
4. The Fourth kind of Fertile Branches are those which the year before were Indifferent, and which are become Fertile through the little Sap that is come to them, and by the Buds which are grown to a fullness.  
5. Finally, the Fifth are those which have a Flower-bud at the end of the Branch.  
1. Of these three sorts of Branches, that is to say, of the Prodigal, Indifferent, and Fertile, the Prodigal are always cut very short at the first or second knot, to make the Sap pass to another side of the Tree, and produce there Branches Indifferent or Fertile. This Lopping reiterated many times, makes the Prodigal Dye, or at leastwise hinders the Tree from pushing them so vigorously. It's by reason of this experiment that we ought not to cut Trees much, because by cutting them in all their Branches, they are made to Languish and afterwards to Die. The Prodigals which have been cut many times the precedent year, aught to be Lopped at the first knot near the Mother Branch whence it grows, as the Fourth Figure shows.  
Fig. 4  
A. A Prodigal cut in February at the Second knot.  
B. A Prodigal cut in June at the Second knot.  
C. A Shoot of the Prodigal in July which has not been cut, because it has shot very little.  
D. Where we must cut a Prodigal in February, of the following year at the first knot.  
Lop therefore the top of the Tree, where the Prodigal Branches are Ordinarily found, and spread it at the bottom and at the sides; this Lopping gracefully fills a Tree, and hinders it from Growing to too great a height and from destroying itself in a short time.  
2. As for the Indifferent Branches, some of them ought to be Lopped, others not; that is to say, we ought in the Month of February to let those grow on which have Buds for Wood very near each other, and which issue from a good place, as also those which have two great Leaf-buds which touch each other at the end of the Branch; to the end we may know their Genius at the Lopping of June. The greatest and best supplied with Juice will be the best for keeping. The Indifferent which we ought to cut at the third or fourth knot, are those which are least disposed to bear Fruit, and which have the Leaf-buds far from one another.  
3. The Fertile ought never to be Lopped, tho' they are as long as the Arm; Trees left to run up from which we Lop no Branches and which bear so much Fruit, show us well that we ought never to Lop the Fertile: nevertheless, if there be need of them for filling up a void space where it happens, and that no other Branch can be found for this purpose, I permit them to be cut for embellishing the Tree.  
And to explain myself farther in speaking concerning a Fertile Branch, I say that that which has Rings in its source, Wrinkles at the beginning of its shoot of May or of June, or finally knots near each other, ought not to be cut without a great necessity; for experience has taught me that all these Branches bear Infallibly their Fruit toward the end of their Branches, which our ill gardiner's always cut away. So at the beginning of February Observe exactly the end of the shoots of the precedent year, that you may always cut the Branch when the Saps are at a stand at the first or second knot in the Wood which comes after, and to leave all the knots which will be as many Flower-buds, that will not fail to form themselves there in two or three years. It's an Observation which will embellish your Trees by the abundance of Fruits which they will produce. That which I say being somewhat difficult to comprehend without seeing it, the fifth Figure will make you understand it.  
Fig. 5  
A. The Lop of February in an Indifferent Branch.  
From B. to C. three Branches of the shoot of May.  
D. The Lop of June in Indifferents.  
From D. to E. The shoot of June.  
From E. to F. The shoot of August, the Wood of which is very full of Sap.  
G. Where we must Lop in February, of the following year when the Saps are at rest.  
H. Where in two years' Fruit-buds will be formed in a Branch which from indifferent is become Fertile.  
The Fertile Branches which Issue from a Bud which has yielded Fruit, and which have not been cut at the beginning of May, ought not to be cut in February, unless they are double. In this occasion we must let run the better, and Lop the other at the first or second knot. Experience has taught me that these Branches never fail of bearing Fruit the second or third year. See the third Figure.  
Finally, the same Experience has taught me that the Fruit-buds which come at the end of the Branches in Trees whose Genius is often to bear their Fruit in this place, ought not to be cut, especially if they produce little, and we should have but few Gracioli, Coins Francs, nor Grenades d'Espagne, if we should cut these sorts of Trees at the end of their Branches.  
It is said that the Fruits which come at ends of Branches are small, and that the Wind blows them down. I own that the first default is without remedy, but the Second is not so, for we may bind up the Branch laden with Fruit against the Wind. Nature doing well what she does, when she places a Fruit-bud at the end of a Branch of a Pear-tree, has an intent to render this Branch Fertile; for the Fruit which she produces there, seals that Branch, and hinders it from pushing forth afterward; this Branch receiving not then much Sap, forms in all its length an Infinite number of Fruit-buds, and two or three years after it is all decked with them; which it continues to do for five or six years following, till the Branch is worn out; if this Flower-bud be cut away the Sap will come freely and vigorously into the Branch cut, and instead of the Fruit which Nature had there designed, we shall have nought but Wood through the Gardiner's Ignorance.  
When we will have large Fruit, especially in the Bon-Chretien and in other Trees, which bear great, we ought to Lop short, the nearer the Fruit-buds are to the Trunk, the greater the Fruit is, for it receives more of the Juice.  
There are Gardiner's who make the Bush of a Tree too thin by cutting away the little Branches, and leaving the Trunk almost bare: we might leave in it some clear space in the middle and the sides, to give entrance to the Sun which must colour the Pears, but we ought not to cut it too much: the shadow of the Leaves ought to secure the Trunk of the Tree against the parching heat of the Sun which makes it chop, and which breeds the Scab and the Canker by the dryness of its Bark. True it is that we ought to cut shorter Trees with a round Bush head than Espaliers, and that we ought not to let them run up too much: In a strong and moist Soil we must keep a Bush head thinner of Branches than in another Soil, which is poor and dry; but in all places we ought to keep it well filled, and not cut away the Branches in the midst of it as much as is done at this day.  
The nicest Trees do not delight in this Figure, Pear-trees do not much take to it, and Apricock-trees less. Trees Grafted on the great Quince-tree, are more proper for it than those which are Grafted on a Pear-tree, these later cannot be reduced, the more you cut them the more they shoot of Wood; and besides with this, they do not bring forth much Fruit, their nature being to be always high.  
Cherry-trees which bear sharp Cherries, grow very well with a Bush head, provided that they are Grafted on the small bitter Cherrytree; and they take to it better yet if they are permitted to grow up, for they do not much delight in the Pruning-knife, and less when they are old.  
The Plum-tree is of the same nature with the Cherrytree; it is ordered also after the same manner.  
We ought rather to cut a Branch away, than to cut it in many places; the divers wounds which we give Trees, decay them, and make them die languishing, witness the Prodigal, which we kill by often cutting.  
Experience has taught me for many years following, that Fruit with stones (that is to say the Apricock-tree, the Nectarin, and the Peach-tree) ought not to be Lopped as Pear-trees.  
We ought only to cut away Branches, and sometimes the greatest to make them renew themselves: and contrary to the custom of other Trees, they bear in young shoots which lad themselves with Fruit the first year. It's after this manner that they last Twenty or Thirty years; the more therefore that a Peach-tree shoots forth, the more Fruit it bears.  
We never ought in these Sorts of Trees to cut a Branch in the middle, tho' the Apricock-tree is not so much damnified by it as the others; because they have a large Pith very susceptible of the injuries of the Air. The wound often causes five or six knots to die in a Branch, which has been cut after that manner, and by taking off with the Pruning-knife the end of the Branch, as is ordinarily done, we carry away at the same time the Fruit that ought to form itself there, and we leave but an end of a Branch which brings nought but Wood  
I say it once again; the Fruit comes but at the end of the shoot of the two first Saps; if we Lop away this end, we carry away the Fruit, and we blockishly deprive ourselves of that which we seek with so much passion. It's a remark which we ought well to Observe, for the Sap having spent and as it were wearied itself after having past all along a Branch, does not exert itself with so much vigour, and its motion is not so impetuous, nor so nimble at the end of a Branch as in the beginning of it; also it employs itself rather to form Buds for Flowers when it acts mildly, than when it agitates itself with so much precipitation.  
Because Fruit with Stones shoot more briskly and more in confusion than Pear-trees, we must also take good heed to Lop them with discretion. These Trees having shot forth vigorously a Branch during one year, and having produced Fruit there, lose their force in this same Branch the year following, and shoot forth nought but Scions here and there, but which are laden with an infinite number of Fruit; and the greatest part of these same Scions die the year following as well as all the annual buds of the Tree. When a great Branch is old we ought to cut it in its Source, as you may see in the Figure following.  
Fig: 6  
A. Wood worn out of three or four years.  
B. The place where it ought to be cut.  
C. Young Wood of the year which ought not to be cut in the middle.  
D. Flower or Fruit-buds of the precedent year, which are dry.  
The Nectarine and the Peach-tree, being of the nature of those Trees which shoot much in their tops, we must not hope to be able to subdue them as Pear-trees, and force them to fill themselves well in the lower part: if we Lop them as these Trees, that is to say, if we Lop their Branches in the middle we hinder them indeed from shooting in their tops, but they do not fill themselves for this in their lower part; they mount always, and by cutting them after that manner, no Fruit comes of it, and we kill them in a short time.  
In general, the Plum-tree and the Cherrytree delight more in Lopping than the Appletree: but all three of them do not delight in it as much as the Pear-tree, which is the only Tree that endures it best. We must take nought from these three first Trees but the dead Wood, unless we will form them at first for Bush-trees or Espaliers.  
Because the Corand-tree has much Pith, and that it comes easily of a slip, its nature does not endure it to be Lopped in the middle of its Branches, no more than the Peach-tree; above all we must take good care of cutting it, when we set it. We ought in an old Corand-tree to cut near the Root a Branch past bearing, in order to renew it, and to cut also from the lower part some young shoots of the year to hinder it from being too much confused. The young shoots which we preserve, serve to renew it when we cut it in its old Wood Nevertheless, tho' it does not delight in being Lopped, we make Bushes of it, and form it in an Espalier, which is beautiful to behold, at the time that it is laden with Fruit.  
I say the same of the Mulberry-tree, and of the Figtree, which cannot endure the knife by reason of the abundance of their Pith; the last especially is visibly damnified by it, unless we Lop from them great useless Branches, for rendering them regular: and neither of them can be made to grow low, they love too much the free and open Air.  
Medlar-trees and Service-trees naturally grow high, the former endure the knife much more than the latter.  
The Portugal Quince-trees, and the Pomegranate-trees of Spain will not be Lopped, because they bear their Fruit at the end of their Branches. Nevertheless we may take from them entire Branches, which cause a confusion, and which are old; and cut near the Trunk the useless Prodigals, which are usual enough in these sorts of Trees. As for the other Prodigals which embellish the Tree, and which in four or five years will yield Fruit, we ought not to Lop them.  
Care must be taken to cover the great Wounds of Trees with a Plaster made of a pound of Drogue a flambeau, four Ounces of Rosine, and two Ounces of Sheep's Suet. When we walk in our Garden in a fine day of the Month of April, we must have in our hand a Magdaleon of the Plaster even now mentioned, we must cut a little of it with a knife, and after having wrought it betwixt the moistened Fingers, for rendering it a little soft, we must apply it on the great Wounds, which we had forgot to seal in the Month of March. And to the end that this Plaster may keep the longer on the Wounds, we must put on it a bit of paper as a binder, which we must press on softly with the Finger, to the end that the heat of the Summer making the Plaster melt, the paper may press it, stay it, and glue it more to the Wood: it is what we ought to do in the two other Loppings following.   

CHAP. II. The Lopping of Fruit-trees, at the beginning of the Month of May.  
PRoperly speaking, it is not a Lopping that is done to Trees at this time; they are as yet in the motion of their Sap. We cut but Scions; which tho' Fertile of themselves, bring in the mean time a great prejudice to the Fruit; at the beginning of May we must therefore take a particular care to cut away the useless Branches which grow by the Buds for Fruit, and especially in Pear-trees; that is to say, to cut away at the second knot a little Scion which comes among the clusters of Pears: to delay this is not good, the Sap which ought to Communicate itself to the Fruit, is carried into the shoot, which draws a part of the humour of the Fruit-bud, where the Pears are fastened, which causes either that their Stem dries for want of Sap, or that they come very small.  
You may see what I mean in the following Figure.  
Fig. 7  
A. A shoot which comes on the Fruit-bud through the abundance of the Sap.  
B. The place where you must cut it.   

CHAP. III. The Lopping of Fruit-trees at the beginning of June.  
IN the Decrease of the Moon of May, which happens often in June, you must Lop Trees for the second time; but with more moderation than in February: for we ought never in June to cut great Branches, and properly speaking, it is but a relopping of Trees.  
We must wait above all till the Sap be ended, according to the Maxim which we have alleged before, and it will be good to repeat it here: Lop in Fair weather, in the Decrease of the Moon, at the end of the Saps; or rather when Trees are at rest.  
The rest of a Tree is known by a bud Garnished ordinarily with two Leaves, which forms itself at the end of the Branches, and we observe chief this bud at the end of May, or at the beginning of June, that is to say, after the first Sap or shooting.  
The second Sap or shooting of Trees gins ordinarily in the middle of June, and ends a Month after, towards Magdalen-tide, so that betwixt the end of the first Sap, and the beginning of the second there is about a Month: and it's at this time that we must cut Trees again.  
The effect of this re-cutting is to make the Buds of the first Sap to fill up, to force Trees to make Fertile Branches, or to form Flower-buds for the following year; whereas the Lop of February, furnishes but Wood to yield Fruit three years after, if we except the Orange, the Bergamot, the Double-flower, the Summer Bon-Chretien, and some others.  
You ought here to call to mind that we have distinguished the Branches of Trees Into Prodigals, Indifferent and Fertile.  
There are few Trees Grafted on cultivated Trees, and on Trees come of Kernels, which do not yield some Prodigal in the first Sap, and which do not continue even to yield of them in the others. Care must be taken therefore to cut them at the second Leaf-bud, and thus to correct the shoot which transports itself, and which draws a great part of the Sap of the Tree. On this matter you may see the fourth Figure.  
As for Trees Grafted on the great Quince-trees, they have not often of these sorts of Prodigal shoots: and some Gardiner's are even of the mind that they ought not to be Lopped at this time, and that the tops of them ought only to be pinched off with the Nails.  
We must not deal with the Indifferent Branches as with the Prodigal: for we ought to keep the best without touching them, and observe exactly those which we permitted to run on in the Month of February. If these have good marks for proving Fertile, we must cut nothing there; but if they have not, they must be cut short enough to make them yield some; that is to say, they must be cut at the fifth or sixth knot for Leaves: As for the other Indifferents, we ought to cut them at half a foot, or even a feet length, for rendering them Fertile the year following. The Indifferents which we must not cut, have particular marks which we have observed in the first Chapter.  
We ought not to touch the Fertile Branches for the reasons mentioned elsewhere, unless it be sometimes those which Issue from a Flower-bud which has failed.  
Before I pass farther, it will be proper for me to explain myself on what I pretend to say by a Flower-bud which has failed; and you must give me leave to make two sorts of Flower-buds. One sort is certain and never shoots forth Wood: they are these which will yield Fruit in a short time. The others shoot forth Wood when the Sap abounds too much, or when we cut a Tree too short, and that by this means we draw the Sap too much toward these sorts of Buds. They are these Buds which will not blow under two or three years. Their Origine, their situation, and their Figure make them easily distinguishable to a Gardener which has experience and a good sense. This being thus established, I may say that a Scion which shoots in a Fruit-bud which has failed, is situated in a good place for being called Fertile as I have said it elsewhere; and that if the Sap of the Tree had not been so abundant, to make this Bud shoot which yielded the Scion, doubtless this Bud would have become the year following a Flower-bud; besides the Fibres of the Bud being transverse, cause the Sap to circulate more slowly, and during all this time the Sun concocts and digests the humour to form there Fruit-buds for Fruit.  
I though good to allege all this, to show the error wherein some are, who will have us always to cut this Scion, even when the Fruit has failed, and for this they call it a false and an ill shoot. But experience has taught me that it has marks of Fertileness, and that two years, or at farthest three years' afterward, if it were not cut away, it would furnish itself with Flower-buds; and would bear during six or seven years an infinite number of Fruit.  
If therefore the Flower-bud which is on a little bearer, that has failed, which would yield Fruit the next year or two years after, shoots Wood; it ought to be cut short in June, to make it form there Fruit-buds, which happens sometimes otherwise through the abundance of the Sap; for a Scion or two form themselves there as may be seen in the third Figure.  
Nevertheless, there are some who will not have us to cut this Scion in June; they preserve it for the Fruit, and cut it long in the Month of February following, or do not Lop them at all; and if there are two, they let the best grow, and cut the other an Eye or two from the Mother-Branch.  
But however, I think we must here distinguish two sorts of Scions which come in a Flower-bud which has failed. There are bearers and vigorous Buds, which shoot forth two or three Scions, whereof some are long and slender, others short and slender, and others again short and thick: We must not touch these last; because most commonly a Flower-bud forms itself there, and we must not always cut the others an Eye or two from the Mother-Branch: If some disposition for a Flower-bud forms itself near the Scion, cut within an Eye or two of the Mother-Branch, we must accept of it from the liberal hand of Nature; if none be formed there, and that another Scion grows there, they must be lest for the Months of July or February following. If the Bud which produces the Scion, be weak, we must not touch it, but we must preserve the Scion for the Fruit, at least if it appears well furnished with Sap in August; for if we cut it, it will be at a stand and will not shoot.  
We must cut larger in June than in February; because it is at that time that we give the Figure to the Tree for the year following, and that we cause Fruit-buds to be formed for two years after.  
If Grafts within a cloven made in the top of a Stock; are vigorous the year that they are grafted, it is better (as some think) to pinch the ends of them away with the Nails at the beginning of June, than to cut them. But experience has taught me that if we design a Graft which shoots vigorously either for a Bush head or for an Espalier, we ought to cut it at the New of the Moon, three or four Months after it is Grafted, to make it spread below, and to secure it from the Wind: We gain a year by so doing.  
As for Trees which we design to let run up to a height it will be good not to cut them at all till the second year.  
We must not touch the first year a Bud Crafted, be it never so vigorous; we must wait the year following to cut the Stump of the Tree come of Seed, mean, while care must be taken to stay it up against the Wind.  
I repeat it once again here, that we ought never to cut Flower-buds, because we take away the Buds which bring a great deal of Fruit during six or seven years following. When the little Branches, where the Buds are fixed, are fortified by the hardness of the Tree, it is then that we must no longer cut off with Sheers, neither Flowers nor Pears.  
there are some who say, that we ought to cut Apricock, Nectarin and Peach-trees, four or five times a year, to wit, in February, in May, in June, and in July: but Experience has taught me, as well as Father Feüillant, who has writ of Fruit-trees, that these sorts of Trees do not much love the knife; otherwise, they do not last long, and we destroy them in the end, by much cutting them: We are obliged in this Month to nale them up, and to cut at the same time the Branches which cannot be applied to the Espalier. Some preserve them to be eut in the Month of February, according to the Maxim that these sorts of Trees, being very nice, do not love to be cut, or rather, they pull away with the Finger the Branches, as fast as they come against order, and in an Irregular place.  
After the first Lopping of February, I am not of opinion that we ought to cut any thing from Appletrees, or Plum-trees, or Chefry-trees, or Goosberry-trees, or Portugal Quince-trees, or Spanish Pomegranate-trees, unless we take from these two last Trees some Prodigals, which ordinaly grow there, and which do not fill, nor embellish the Tree.  
Tho I resolved to speak here but of Lopping Trees, nevertheless it may be allowed me to say somewhat curious concerning their watering, which contributes much to the abundance and greatenss of their Fruit.  
It will be proper in the Evening at Sun set, during the great heats of the Summer to sprinkle with Water sometimes the Branches and the Fruit of Trees with a Dutch Pump. The Tree will be greener, and the Fruit better supplied with nourishment: it is far better to do so than to Water them at the Root; for this last watering renders Peats unsavoury, and of any ill taste, whereas the first, answering to an Evening Rain, or the due of the Night, keeps the Tree supplied with nourishment, which afterwards gives its Fruit the Juice, which is meat for them, for rendering them good and delicious.  
For this we ought to observe that the Water which we will make use of, aught to be drawn in the Morning, and to have been a little exposed to the Sun, so that it should not be cold in the Evening when we would use it: Moreover that the Pump has three or four little holes, that it may make the Water which issues from it to divide itself into a Thousand little drops. Finally, that we ought to place ourselves at fifteen or twenty Foot from the Tree which we will Water.   

CHAP. IU. The Lopping of Fruit-trees at the end of July.  
WE said in the foregoing Chapter, that the second Sap or shoot began in the middle of June, and ended at the end of July; and we say at present, that the third manifests itself in the Month of August, and sometimes in the Month of September according to the disposition of the Air, and the difference of the seasons: so that it is at the end of the second Sap that we ought to meddle with Trees; for in the Month of August we must take good heed not to cut any thing there, and if we cut then any Branch, the Wound does not cicatrize itself all the year, the heat dries it, and the approaching Winter incommodes it with the excess of its Rains and colds.  
This Lopping is not performed but to cause the Branches to be fortified, to make the Flower-buds to fill themselves, and to cause the Fruit to be nourished the more.  
If we ought to be scrupulous in the Month of June to Lop Trees, we ought to be so for a much greater reason this Month, for at present we must but pinch away with the nails the ends of, or cut a little some Branches.  
We must choose then in July a fine day and the decrease of the Moon to visit the Trees: and we must call to mind the division which we have made of the Branches of Trees.  
We must Lop again at the second knot the Prodigals a third time, if they have shot vigorously, that we may wound so often the Branch which receives much of Sap, that its divers Wounds may weaken it, and divert by this means the Sap to other places, that it may be divided into many Branches. These Prodigals come not much but in Trees Grafted on the Pear-tree; and Planted in a good Soil, as I have said: and so we must not seek for them elsewhere, for those which are Grafted on the great Quince-tree do not shoot much: and in this Month we ought to cut nothing in these last sorts of Trees.  
In this Month we must not touch the Indifferent Branches, which we judged to be so in the Months of February and of June, we must stay till the Month of February following to Lop them, if they ought to be Lopped.  
Neither must we touch of those which are Fertile: but concerning those which issue from a Flower-bud which has failed, there are differing sentiments. The shoot which issues from this Bud having been cut at the second knot in the Month of June, shoots sometimes at the second Sap, and yields one or two Scions. Some will have it that we should cut these also at the second knot: because they pretend that Nature ought to form there some disposition to make Buds. Others Lop at the second Eye the least, and preserve the fairest and best fed and knotted, to see in February following if it will show its Genius, and at that time they leave it all entire, because it comes from a Fertile place, or cut it very long. They have observed by experience that three years afterwards it brings a great many Buds, whence issue an infinite number of Fruit.  
If in this Month there are found some useless Branches besides, they must be cut an Eye or two from the Mother-Branch, to make them shoot forth somewhat that is good.  
There come often on Peach and Nectarin-trees, and sometimes on Pear-trees a cluster of Branches, which happens often to Trees grown old, and fit to be cut for renewing themselves. We must do at this time as we did in the February before: that is to say, we must make choice of the Master Sprig to preserve it, and cut away the others. Nevertheless there are some who stay till the Month of February ensuing to do this, because that in July the heat penetrates to the quick into the Wounds of nice Trees; and besides that which Trees shoot after this season ought not to be preserved. They cut therefore Trees at this time the least they can, relying doubtless on experience which has obliged them so to do.  
Toward Magdelan-tide, in the Decrease of the Moon, which happens in the Month of July, we must nail up again Peach-trees, Nectarin-trees, etc. and we must cut all the Branches which are not flexible, and which are grown contrary to Order, tho' with this diligence, that we must cover as soon as may be with a Plaster, and paper the Wounds which have been there made.  
Those who are for the lasting of these Trees, pale them up at this time, but they stay to cut them till the Month of February; these sorts of Trees (according to their sentiment) being so nice, that they cannot endure the Summer, the great heat penetrating into their Wounds, causes five orsix Eyes to die. Which we perceive dried the year following: this is the way (say they) to make them last forty years, as experience shows it. They chose much rather (as I have said) to pull away with the Finger, as they walk, the Branches which come contrary to order, than to cut them, and if there are found some which ought to be cut, they keep them for the Month of February following. Nevertheless, if they are too much confused, and that their shadow hinders the Sun from heating the Fruit, we shall be obliged to cut them away.  
The abundance of Pears being ordinarily the Enemy of Espaliers, and making the Trees often die, we must cut with Sheers the middle of the stalk of the Pears, to disburden the Trees. This aught to be done when the Fruit is a quarter or a third part as big as it ought. This Rule is only for great Winter-Fruit, and chief for the Bon-Chretien: we must observe also not to leave above one or two Pears on a weak Branch, a strong one being able to bear more.  
It's also in this Month that Fruit enter into Juice, and begin to take a colour through the light of the Sun: but because often there are Leaves, which hinder the rays from touching the Fruit, care must be taken in July to take away some from before them, and in the Month of August following we must cut away the rest with Sheers, so managing the Light by reason of the burning heat of the Sun.  
End of the First Tract.    

An Explanation of some words which gardiner's make use of to express themselves in speaking of Fruit-Trees.  
CAnker, or Scab is often caused by the heat of the Sun, or through the taint of the Tree which is in an ill Soil,  
Espalier, is an edge row of Fruit-trees set close together, their Boughs interlaced one within another, and held with Stakes, Rails, or Pales.  
False Shoots, are little useless Branches, or Sprouts of the shoot of August, turning yellowish, and ill supplied with Juice.  
Franc, is said of Fruit, when they are cultivated and domestic, or of a Tree Grafted, or lastly of a young Tree come of a Kernel, Sown, which has no thorns, and which has large Leaves, for there are excellent Fruit which come of Seed so Sown. We say to Graft a Franc on a Franc, Coin Franc.  
Fertile, Fertile shoots are the Branches which always bear Fruit.  
Indifferents, are Sprouts which sometimes yield Fruit within three or four years. A knot is the place where a Tree shoots forth Wood  
Prodigal or Ravenous, are great and smooth shoots, which draw the Sap of the Tree, and which bring not Fruit in a long time; they dissipate all the substance of their Mother.  
Sap, is taken for the humour which rises betwixt the Wood and the great Bark, by the little Bark which is betwixt both, it answers to the Blood of Animals: It is Rosin in the Pinetree, Turpentine in the Larch-tree, Gum in the Apricock and Cherry-trees, Milk in the Figtree, Water in the Vine and in the Pear-tree.  
Scion, is a little Fertile Branch.  
Void spaces, when there are no Branches to fill out the Espalier.  
Worms called Tigers, Lutins, Diablotins, are those Worms which come in the Month of August and gnaw the Leaves of Trees; they have the Head great and black; the vapour of Quick Lime, or the decoction of Wormwood kills them.   

The Second PART. Of the use of the Fruits of Trees, for preserving us in Health, or for Curing us when we are Sick.  
IT is not enough for us to have Writ concerning the Lopping of Trees, to have Fruit in abundance, we must also teach the way and the time of eating them without being offended thereby.  
If our Stomach were as good as that of our Forefathers, it would be useless for us to Write on this matter; but because it is weakened by the pleasures which men of late have taken in their way of living, there seems an Obligation upon us to give precepts concerning the use of Fruits, either for preserving us in Health, or for destroying our Diseases when we are afflicted with them.  
There is nothing so useful in Physic, as to know the qualities of things which we make use of in Life, either for avoiding those which offend us, or for taking those which do us good: it is what has obliged Learned men to deliver their sentiments concerning all that we eat, they making use always of Reason and experience, which we shall also follow in this Tract of The use of Fruits of Trees: for it is only of those whereof we design to speak.  
We shall make therefore three different Chapters: We shall show in the First the time and the way of using those Fruits which are easily corrupted, as Figgs, Nectarins, Peaches, Plums, Apricocks, Mulberries, and Cherries, which we ought always to eat fasting, on an empty Stomach, and before Meals.  
The second shall Treat of those which are not easily corrupted, and which we ought to eat the last thing after Meals, as Pears, Apples, Portugal Quinces, Medlars, and Services.  
Lastly, the third shall explain how we may eat before or after Meals Raisins, Portugal and China Oranges, Spanish Pomegranates, and Corands. But before I enter upon this matter, I think fit to lay down some general Maxims, without which we cannot know the good use which we ought to make of Fruits.  
We ought then in the first place to observe all the qualities of the Fruits before mentioned, that we may use the one and the others at divers times, according to the precepts which we shall give in the Sequel.  
We find of Sweet, of sugared, of Ambered, of Musked, of Vinous, of Aqueous or Insipid, of Sharp, of Acerb, and of Austere, and to speak in a few words, there are of sweet, sharp, and austere.  
There are found moreover of Red, of Yellow, of Green, of Tawny, of Violet, of White and of Black.  
Again there are of Cassans or harsh, of Burez, of Fondans or melting and tender; finally we find such as pass quickly through the Bowels of those that eat them, and these are the Fruits which are easily corrupted: there are others which stay a long time in the Stomach, and they are those which are corrupted with difficulty.  
All the Fruits whereof we design to speak in particular, cool and moisten much, because they are but Water gathered together, and passed through the Trunk of the Tree, which produces them; but nevertheless with this difference, that there are some colder and moister than others.  
Fruit that have a quality which is sweet, and pleasant to the taste, are less cold than others: thus, tho' Figgs, Raisins, the Bon-Chrêtien, the Spanish Renet, and other Fruit of the like nature, moisten much, they have nevertheless but a coldness, which does not pass the bounds of the first degree, it's for this reason that they dulcify much, and that they nourish a little more than the others, their matter having more affinity with our parts. But if with their natural sweetness they have an odour of Amber or of Musk, than they have I know not what subtle and penetrating parts, which exhilerate our Heart and Brain, and which make us digest them better than others.  
Sharp Fruit cool more than sweet: but they do not moisten so much, they powerfully penetrate and attenuate the thick and earthy matters, so that afterward they are no longer capable of doing us hurt. They qualify our heated Bowels; they destroy the Flame there, which often all the remedies of Physic have not been able to quench during many Months: they cool our Liver, remove all the Obstructions of our Bowels, and give our Blood a more free motion: finally they appease fluxions, if we apply them outwardly, and they stay a Flux of Blood from whatever part it comes.  
Fruits which are austere and acerb, and which differ but in more or less, restringe the Tongue and the Palate when we eat them: it seems that they stop the Orifices of the threads that terminate there, by the blunted and obtuse particles of their matter.  
I do not pretend to speak here of Fruit which are not Ripe, that have all these qualities. I banish them entirely from this Book as very pernicious to the Life of Man; but I speak only of those, which being in a perfect maturity, retain somewhat of austere, acerb, or astringent, as the Rake Pear, the great Dégue, the Quince, and other Fruits of the like Nature. All these Fruits are also more cold than the sweet and the Amb'red, but they do not moisten so much: and because their savour is in a more Earthy matter, even in this respect they do not penetrate so much as the Sharp. They restring however the Stomach and the Bowels, and withstand a Looseness and a Dissentery, and being applied outwardly they hinder Vomiting, retard growing Inflammations, and easily cicatrize the Skin, which has been opened by a considerable Wound.  
After all, a Fruit which has been brought to perfection by the heat of the Sun, and which has not been shadowed by the Leaves of its Tree, will be always of better taste than another. A red Apple or Pear, and a yellow Raisin will always be better than others; because their Juice will be better digested, and their useless moisture will be easily evaporated by the heat of the Sun.  
You must observe in the second place, that I give not here precepts concerning the use of Fruits, for sound and robust Persons, on whom Fruits make no Impression; Let such eat of them at all times, and as much as they please, without distinguishing their Nature and Temperament, they will not find any inconvenience: but because these sorts of Persons are very rare, and that in the Age we Live, there are more Valetudinarians than others, I may be allowed to Write only for those who have their Entrails tender, and who are often incommoded by eating Fruits.  
The greatest part of men at present are of a hot and dry Complexion; we have all of us the inward parts very hot, through the excess of a  Choler, and through the redundancy of a troubled Melancholy. With difficulty are we able during the Summer to support the heat of the Season, without being exhausted of our strength: We have the Stomach so weak and so tender through our natural distemperature, that we have need of much precaution for the good use of Fruits.  
In the third place, we must remember, that in walking in a Garden full of excellent Fruit, which are perfectly Ripe; we must not eat one which has not first been washed with fresh Water, and especially if the heat of the Sun, or of the day be excessive.  
It is not of to day that experience has taught me, that Fruit newly gathered, and eaten without precaution, cause the Fevers which we call putrid, which always begin with shiverings and tremble, because all the Juices of Fruits being then through the heat of the day, and of the Season in a considerable motion, they cause in our Stomach so great a disorder at the time that the fermentation is there made, that the Chyle becoming crude and undigested, often gives Birth to great Diseases, whereas the motion of the Juice of Fruits being calmed by the cold of the Water, of the Night or of the season, the Fruits make no disorder in our Stomach, which then digests them better, and which performs its Office much better, when it is not interrupted by unusual causes.  
After all, we ought to know that our sood being in some sort like our substance, changes itself easily within our parts imperceptibly to us: It's thus that Bread, Flesh, an Egg, have no Predominant quality when we put them into our Mouth, and we do not sensibly feel the Virtues when we have them in the Stomach. We must not say so of Aliments which we call medicamental; they nourish little, and on the other side they have sensible qualities, which affect our Tongue and our Palate. We may perceive that a Vertelongue, or a Pear Portail will cool and moisten our heated Stomach, that it will qualify the Gall of our Liver, and the heat of our Reins, and that by cooling this last part, it will hinder Stones from being formed there.  
Finally, it's a grand secret for our good Health, to keep what we eat, from corrupting in the Stomach. The things of a different Nature which we put into it, daily cause disorders, whereof ourselves are too often Witnesses; if experience did not convince us of this truth, there would doubtless be a great deal of pleasure in eating many things one after the other; but it shows us that eating before or after Meals Fruits of a different Nature, that is to say, such as are easily corrupted, as Peaches, etc. and such as have a more firm substance, as Pears, etc. The Coction which is made in the Stomach is not laudable, and that it is thence that often proceeds the little Health of those who over loosely indulge themselves to the pleasure of the taste.  
If therefore we eat at the end of Meals Peaches and Pears, as it often happens, the Peaches being of a substance to be soon digested, and to pass off quickly, and the Pears of a pretty firm matter, requiring more time to Concoct, two great inconveniencies follow; the first, that the Peaches trouble the Belly, and make the Food taken at the Meal to descend, without being fully digested: the second, that they hastily drag along with them the Pears, which require a longer time for digestion, and thus there comes of it but crudities, and afterward obstructions, which are the cause of some troublesome Disease.  
It is not the same when we eat before Meals Mulberries and Peaches, or after Meals Pears and Quinces; the two first Fruits and the two last have a matter and qualities near alike: the former pass quickly through the Belly by reason of their great humidity: and the later digest themselves afterward at leisure, by constringing after the Meal the superior Orifice of the Stomach, which by this means acquits itself much better of its office.  

CHAP. I. Of Fruits which ought to be eaten before Meals.  
I Say in the first place that good Fruit which are Ripe, never do hurt, unless we misuse them, or commit faults in eating them; there are none but ill and unripe Fruit which cause Crudities, Indigestions, Colicks, and Fevers. I say much more; experience daily teaches us, that by the moderate use of them we prevent an infinite number of Diseases, and that we Cure as many. Our Gardens fail not of Remedies to relieve us, and I wonder we go so far into Foreign Countries to seek for Drogues, which are musty or rotten, when they are brought to us, since we have so excellent at home. Our Fruits have many more Virtues and Charms than all those Drogues, and there are seen few Persons who refuse Peaches, Mulberrys, or Pears, to appease the burning of the Bowels; Whereas we daily see Persons have in horror Tamarinds, Cassia, Rhubarb, and the other Drogues which are brought us from so far.  
Because I am obliged to follow the Order which I have prescribed to myself, I shall treat in this Chapter of the good use of those Fruits which ought to be eaten at Breakfast, or before Meals: and I shall begin with Figgs, which among all Fruits have always been the most esteemed.  

ART. I. Of Figgs.  
AMong all the Food wherewith Men nourished themselves at the beginning of the World, there is not one which deserves a greater praise than Figgs. The Ancients have made Encomiums on them in many of their Books; and the Lacedæmonians so far esteemed them, that they would never go to any Feast where they were not provided in a great plenty. Also some have compared them to Gold, nay have esteemed them far better than this Metal. It's doubtless by reason of their sugary sweetess, which is the Symbol of peace, that men formerly wished their Friends a happy year, by sending them at the beginning of it Figgs and Honey.  
In truth, they have admirable Virtues in Case they are eaten with Bread, for Breakfast, or before Meals. For it is thus that they qualify the Bowels, and that they appease the excess of a troublesome heat. They do not fail of producing other good effects, they quench drought, lenify the Breast, and give a more easy respiration. They clear the Liver and the Spleen of the Obstructious wherewith they are afflicted. They discharge the Reins and the Bladder of their slime and Gravel: They loosen the Belly, be it never so tardy: finally they nourish and fatten both together, witness the famous Wrestlers, who performed most courageously, when they lived but of Bread and Figgs. Witness also the Keepers of Figg-Gardens, who (according to the Relation of Galen) eaten in a manner nought but Figgs, and who in the mean while were so fat, that a man would have said that nothing was wanting to them in their way of living.  
Figgs also have this peculiar to them, that they contribute to the vigour of young People, and to the Health of such as are Old, so that those who use of them often, have no Wrinkles in their Face. A better Reason cannot be given than that Figgs, by their fat substance engender a Blood which dulcifies much, and this same matter being carried to the superficies of the Body is there cleared as well as the Blood of all its serous and superfluous excrements, so that what remains serves as a natural Paint, and renders the Face smooth, and free from all sorts of Wrinkles.  
After all, they have the property of Penetrating, Cleansing and Digesting; for no man doubts but they are hot in the first degree, and moist in the second; the great humidity they have make them soon corrupt, and obliges us to eat them with Bread before Meals; for its the Leaven of the Bread which corrects all the ill qualities.  
It's a Maxim among Physicians, That we ought always to begin with the things that are moistest and easiest of digestion, when we Dine, or when we Sup. And this is also another, That after Fruits that are Sweet and Luscious, and which withal pass quickly through the Belly, we ought rather to Drink pure Water, or Water mixed with a little Wine, than Wine alone. Pure Wine carries hastily into the Lacteal Veins the matter of the Figgs before it be digested, and so causes winds; and Indigestions in those who so do: Whereas Water is the cause of a slower fermentation, by the means of which the Figgs are perfectly digested and make afterward a very laudable Blood, which easily becomes our substance.  
They are not proper only for such as are in Health, but likewise for those who have a Fever and are costive, and I cannot imagine to myself that a Learned Physician can refuse his Patient a Fig half dried on the Tree by the heat of the Sun.  
Dry Figgs have much more Virtue than those which we gather; we may eat of them even after Meals, without offence; also they are more penetrating and hotter than the others through the subtlety of their parts, but they are not so moist. If they are applied in the form of a Cataplasm with Bread and a little Vinegar, haply they are the quickest and most certain remedy for opening an abscess, for killing a Carbuncle, or the swelling of the Kings-Evil, or lastly to withstand the progress of a Latent Cancer.  
They do much more, if we will believe Dioscorides, for they tear from the Flesh (as we may say) a piece of a Bone broken, if we mix them with wild Popy Flowers.  
The Germane Physicians have not found a better remedy in the Smallpox, or Measles than the decoction of these Fruits dry; experience has shown them that this decoction, by Purging by Urine, carries away all the Malignant serosity which is the cause of those troublesome Diseases.  
But among all the good qualities which these Fruits enjoy, there are observed some ill: they cause Winds which swell the Stomach; they breed Lice, and makes us fond in caressing Women.  
The Spirits irritated and set in motion by the Winds which they engender, and a viscours humidity which they cause, are two things which dispose us to be fond of a Woman, as we have proved at large in a Dissertation we caused to be Printed the last year; which has for Title, Whether those who Drink Water alone are more amocous than others?  
The Lice which they say Figgs breed in those who use them in excess, proceed but from the filth of the Skin, and from our excrements which they evacuate by the pores: and the evils they cause in us by the Winds they engender, proceed but from the ill use we make of them; if we eat them with Nuts or Almonds, we shall correct all the disorders they can bring us; and I can assure you that being so eaten, they will be without fault, and will do us no hurt, still provided that we use them with moderation.   

ART. II. Of Nectarins and Peaches.  
I Cannot bear the contempt some Persons have for Nectarins, Alberges, Brugnons, Melicotonies, Perses and Peaches, nor be satisfied with the reason they bring for blaming them. They say among other things that these Fruits are corrupted so easily in the Stomach, that it is almost impossible to secure them from it; that they produce ill Blood, that they cause Fevers; that they injure the inward parts; that the Persians, from whose Country they were brought, dare not eat of them by reason of their Malignity, and finally that Galen, the most knowing of the Greek Physicians, always condemned them.  
But if it were free for me to explain myself at large thereon, and to break off the design which I proposed to myself; I would show that the ill use which is made of the most excellent things, is often the cause that they are despised and blamed. Peaches, not to speak of the other kinds, are a Fruit so excellent and so delicious to the taste, that I could freely prefer them before Figgs and Raisins, which (according to the sentiment of some) ought to hold the first rank among Fruits.  
Very far from causing all the evils whereof they are accused, they cool the Stomach when heated, quench the heat of the Liver, alloy the burning of the Blood during the extremity of the Summer heats, and moisten the matter which is then very thick through the drought of the Season.  
If we observe well their precautions, they do not corrupt in the Stomach, provided that they are eaten before Meals, and that after having eaten them we drink only Water, if we find a burning in the Bowels; or excellent Wine, if we find ourselves to have a very moderate heat; It is then that they will engender a better Blood than the Herbs we use every day.  
I own that in Persia these sorts of Fruits have Malignant and purgative qualities, but since the Trees were transported into Egypt, and have been replanted in Italy, and since cultivated in France, they have lost all the Malignity which they had, and have retained but the purgative Virtue, which they have still, and which they Communicate to their Fruit.  
It's this purgative Virtue which causes them to be so much esteemed of by the Healthy and Valetudinarians, who had much rather eat fasting four or five excellent Peaches, and drink after them Water or Wine, to loosen the Belly; than to take a dose of Physic, the very name of which raises a horror in those that take it the most courageously.  
It's this same property which resides in the Leaves, the Flowers and the Fruit of the Peach-tree, which kills the Worms in the Bowels, which Purges Choler and the Serosities of the Body, and stops even Vomitings at Sea, as we see written in the Works of Julius of Alexandria.  
If Galen had Lived in our days, and had tasted Peaches, which the Art and Industry of our Gardiner's have rendered so recommendable, I am certain he would have had quite another opinion of these sorts of Fruit: the Peaches which were carried to Rome in the Time of this Physician, coming by Sea from Sicily or from about Naples, were partly rotten before they came thither, which made Galen at that time to despise them, and to condemn them even as a Food very pernicious for Man.  
Some Persons will correct the ill quality, and the great humidity of the Peach, by eating it with Bread, by exposing it two or three days to the scorching heat of the Sun, by eating its Kernel, or finally by drinking pure Wine with it.  
True it is, experience has taught me, that Bread eaten with Fruits which we ought to use before Meals, corrects their ill qualities, and that by exposing Peaches to the Sun, they lose a superfluous humidity which often incommodes us. But the same experience has also given me to understand, that Peach and Apricock Kernels much charge the Stomach, and that besides their great bitterness they are also very difficult to digest: that moreover, tho' pure Wine be the sole thing which opposes itself to the coldness, and humidity of this Fruit; nevertheless if we drink much of such as is small or of a mean strength, we fall into Vomitings and Loosnesses, which sometimes degenerate into a Bloodyflux. Whereas a little of excellent pure Wine corrects by its noble heat the ill qualities of the Peach: It's haply this experiment which gave occasion for this Latin Verse.  
Petre, quid est Pescha? Cum vino nobilis Esca.   

ART. III. Of Plums and Apricocks.  
THere are some who prefer the Plum before all other Fruits with Stones, and say that there is nothing more delicious to eat than a Black Damson, a Great Date, or a Perdrigon. The Apricock does not come near them, it has I know not what of unsavoury when it is ripe, and of sharpish when it is not so; mean while, both have very near the same qualities; they are both hot in the mean, and moist in the second Degree.  
The sweet Plum rejoices a hot Stomach, lenines the Breast, Loosen's the Belly, and nourishes much more than the Peach, provided however that it be eaten before Meals, otherwise it corrupts, and by moistening too much the superior Orifice of the Stomach after Meals, it makes the Food descend too soon, and so causes Crudities, which it is difficult afterward to deal with.  
I shall not repeat here the different Maxims which I have laid down in the precedent Discourses concerning the Use of Fruits, which ought to be eaten fasting, and before Meals. I shall only say that its good to cast Plums into fresh Water before they are eaten, to the end they may cool and moisten more; but provided that they are very ripe, and that all have their Stems, lest the Water enter there, and render them Insipid. It's doubtless in order to be more cooled, and more moistened, and to keep the Belly more soluble that some Men eat often Prunes with their Meat, and that there are even some who dislike their Pottage if it has not of them.  
If dried Plums may be given to sick Persons, I do not doubt also but I may be permitted to give of them to mine, after having gathered them very ripe in a clear day; the Choler which is often the cause of all Fevers, loses its edge by the cumbrance which it receives from the substance of Plums: and because these Fruits oppose the heat and drought of these Diseases, they are esteemed excellent for encountering Bilous Fevers, provided that the use be regular, and that we take a seasonable time to give them.   

ART. iv Of Mulberries.  
OF all the Fruits that are eaten there are none but Mulberries which are fit for Men when unripe: these aught only to be Red, drawing toward the Black, to be eaten. If they are throughly ripe, they corrupt so hastily in the Stomach, that shortly after they cause in those who eat freely of them, Distempers of the Stomach, Loosnesses, Carbuncles, Malignant Swell, and often pernicious and Epidemic Diseases, especially if Rains have been rise during the Summer.  
There is nothing which changes itself sooner into Choler, and which becomes sooner poison within our Body than a Black Mulberry. Those who have the Stomach foul ought to take good heed of eating them, unless they have a mind to be sick in a short time. The Red-blacks withstand Corruption more, and tho' they are very moist, they have nevertheless I know not what of drought through their sharpness and astriction, which hinders them from corrupting so soon.  
To use them well, we ought nevertheless to mind the precautions belonging to them, and never to eat of them but when the Stomach is empty, clean, and hot; for if a heat be not felt in the Bowels, how young and Choleric soever a Person be, I do not advise him to eat of them, unless he has a mind to fall into some one of the Diseases which we have spoken of before.  
Mulberries carry their Liquor with them, and nothing aught to be Drank after they are eaten; they excite the appetite, cool the Stomach, appease drought, alloy the heat of the Liver, Purge the Blood of its superfluous serosities, carrying them off by Urine. They blunt the edge of the Choler, moisten those that are troubled with Melancholy and Choler: finally they make the Belly soluble in those who are naturally Costive. I will say much more, if Mulberries gathered from the Tree and eaten in a good plenty can cause the Bloodyflux; as we see it every year, nature which most commonly has placed the remedy in the cause of our evils, has not forgotten to teach us by experience, that these Fruits serve for an assured remedy against the inveterate Bloodyflux, if they are given dry to the weight of a Crown in Gold in Red-Wine.  
Since the chief Virtue of Mulberryes is to cool and to keep the Mass of Blood from fermenting, by qualifying the parts which serve for sanguification, there may be cause to believe that they may be a Remedy appropriated to the Gout as well as all other Fruits. For the pain which Gouty Persons feel in the ligaments of their Joints, is caused but by a Blood and a serosity too sharp, which sharpness is blunted by the great humidity of Mulberries, they insensibly evacuating it by Urine. We need not seek for other proofs than daily experience, and that which Hegesander has left us in Writing. He relates that the Mulberry-trees did not bear Fruit for Twenty years together, and that during all that time Men, Women, and Children, were so troubled with the Gout, that other causes could not be then discovered, than the scarcity of these Fruit.   

ART. V Of sharp Cherries.  
SHarp Fruits in general are enemies to Old and Melancholic Persons, when they do not find within themselves an excessive heat; they are not edulcorated in their Stomach (if I may so call it) and are distributed into their Veins without being Concocted and blunted. Which is not done without causing in the Mouth little sharp belchings, and in the Stomach troublesome prickings, and in the whole Body an insupportable heavyness.  
It does not happen so to young People that are Sanguine and Choleric who have the Entrails heated: but if casually the sharpness of Cherries with short Stems eaten fasting, causes sometimes in these prickings in the Stomach, they need then but to mix Powder Sugar with them, to blunt the point of it.  
The most refined Sugar and the whitest, which we call Royal, is the least proper for the use of Man; it heats and dries us too much, and through the abundance of its Sulphur and Salt, it is entirely opposite to the principles of our Life: The finer Sugar is the less sweet it is, and the less also it quenches thirst. Lime which is a capital Enemy of Man, if it be taken inwardly, or outwardly applied, is the chief matter which Refiners make use of, for rendering Sugar whiter and more solid; and tho' Powder Sugar be made by many repeated Lixivium's, nevertheless it ought always to be preferred before Loaf Sugar, and if we will choose the best of all, we must always take that which is the whitest among the browns. It is that which is extremely sweet, which quenches thirst, which moistens, and which lenifies the Breast: I thought it proper to make this digression for Persons who lovesweet things, because Sugar is often set at our Tables, for rendering our Fruits more agreeable to the taste.  
Sharp Cherries exhilerate the Stomach, they excite there the Appetite, and appease the drought. They dissipate the thick humours, and by their sharp quality, they cut them (as I may say) and divide them, either that they may serve afterward for Food, or be evacuated with more ease.  
By all these Virtues they are very proper as well as Mulberries, to oppose the cause and the progress of the Gout, and experience shows us that Gouty Persons receive a sensible relief by the use of Fruits, which qualify the Liver, and which correct the Acrimony of the Blood.  
Moreover they powerfully loosen the Belly, if they are freely eaten fasting while the Dew is yet on the Fruit; and experience teaches us every year that they carry off by a Looseness long Diseases, which all the other Remedies of Physic have not been able to Cure.  
The most proper time to eat them is in the Morning fasting, either with or without Bread. They have moisture enough to oblige us not to drink any Liquor after them. As for the lateward Cherries which we call at Rochel des Guignes with long Stems, tho' they may be eaten before Meals; nevertheless I allow them to be eaten after Meals: they have an agreeable Astriction, which contributes to Concoction, and which closes the superior Orifice of the Stomach, that it performs its Office afterward much better.  
The sweet Cherries, especially those which we call in this Town Guindoux and Guigneaux, are much better than the sharp for old Persons and for those who have a nice Stomach; they do not prick so much the inward parts, and they nourish more.  
Haply there is not any Remedy more agreeable and more excellent for qualifying the Reins, and for clearing thence the Gravel, Slime, and little Stones, than the Wine of sharp Cherries: We must take off them therefore in the Months of June or July, twelve or fifteen Pounds, we must cleanse them of their Stems and Stones, and cast them and their Stones broken through the Bunghole of a Barrel, (a Vessel containing somewhat more than our Barrel) of good White-wine. After that they have been there for a Month, and have Communicated to the Wine their cooling and opening quality, you may pierce the Vessel and drink the Wine with pleasure. The colour will be agreeable to the Eye, the taste delicious, and the effects admirable.    

CHAP. II. Of Fruits which ought to be eaten after Meals.  
Tho' the Fruits which ought to be eaten after Meals are of a matter more firm, which nourishes more, and which does not corrupt so easily as that of the others, nevertheless we must remember to use them with the same precautions which we gave in the Preface to this Tract: these precautions ought to be stood too as Religiously in using these Fruits, as in eating the others. The faults which are committed in their use are very considerable, and that Person whom I Cured not long since of Vertigo's which threatened her with some severe Distemper, has been thankful to me since, for having forbidden her the use of Apples, which she eaten irregularly after Meals.  

ART. I. Of Pears.  
NEver has the Industry of our gardiner's appeared more admirable than in the divers kinds of Pears which we have in France. They have taken a particular care to Sow Seeds, and to preserve such Trees, as in their Wood and Leaves gave them marks of a good hope: For as by Sowing a great many Flower Seeds, there come of all kinds, and even some that are beautiful and double, so by Sowing a great store of Pear Kernels, it seems that Nature pleases herself in giving us a grand variety of Pear-trees, which produce all new Fruits, and some of them delicious to the taste: haply it is because the Pear is the most excellent Fruit of all, that she delights in multiplying its kinds even to an infinite number: It is thus that the Messire Jean, the Dame Houdote, or the Amadote, the Gabriel Egaud, the Micet, the Martin-sire, and a great many other excellent Pears are come of Kernels, and that they have had the honour to bear the Names of those who raised them.  
But not to stop at this Discourse, which seems to contribute nothing to my design, I may say that the artifice of our Gardiner's has multiplied for us Pears of Summer, of Autumn and of Winter; that it has given us more of Cassantes and of Burez, that it has shown us more of Sweet, of sharp and of Acerb, and that finally it has procured for us more of Vinous, of Ambred and of Musked, than we had before.  
Among all these Pears the sweet and melting are esteemed the best, they nourish more than the others which are a little sharp or Acerb, and they are much more friendly to the nature of Man. Nevertheless there are some who prefer before these first Pears the Sweet and Cassantes, because these for the most part are odoriferous, and the others are not. They prize therefore much more the Bonchretien-Pioulier, or the great Winter Musk Pear, than the Vergoulette, or the Bergamot of Autumn.  
Be it how it will, the Pear in general cools and moistens the heated Entrails, and by its gentle Astriction contributes much to the Concoction of the Stomach, by gently closing its superior Orifice, and by loosening a little the Belly; it's the reason for which it ought always to be eaten after Meals, for if it be eaten the Stomach being empty, it cumbers us, and loads us much, and moreover it binds the Belly; but however we eat of it after Meals, it always has very good effects, provided that we have the Stomach disposed to receive it: for be it that we eat it Crud, or Baked, or Roasted, or Boiled, with Powder Sugar and Cinnamon, as old People ought to eat it, after all these manners it always solaces the Stomach drained of its strength and weakened by the excess of heat.  
That which is to be Observed in the use of Pears, is, that after Meals we ought to eat fewer Beurees than Cassantes, the former being more digested, and more ready to corrupt through the least fault that we commit in our way of living. Moreover we ought always to make choice of the most coloured, and reject those which we find Worm eaten. Finally we ought after Pears to drink a good Cup of pure Wine, letting this Latin Maxim have its force, Post Crudum, merum. But above all we ought to remember not to drink much Wine, nor to drink such as is small; small Wine through its defect of heat not causing the Pear to be Concocted, and the other causing crudities by its redundancy, make both of them disorders in a Stomach the most even tempered and the most strong. It is what experience showed us not long since in a Person, who fell into insupportable pains, having drank much Wine; and Rodolphus Goclenius assures us, that another died having drank much Beer, both, after having eaten Pears to an excess.  
Because our Stomach is much hotter in Winter than in Summer, our heat not dissipating itself during that first season through the pores of our Body, there are Persons who rather eat Pears in Winter than in Summer, and who do not find themselves so much incommoded by them. Haply these Pears have sweated in the heap, and have there seasoned themselves; whereas the Pears of the Summer, having their Sap still in motion, and having not lost their superfluous humidity, trouble rather the Coction of the Stomach than the Pears of Winter.   

ART. II. Of Apples.  
SInce Appletrees have been cultivated in the Pais des Basques, and in the Province of Normandy, Men have had a greater esteem for their Fruits. Trees have been Sown, and afterward Grafted; they have been after that planted and replanted: Finally they have been so often changed in their Soil, Countries, and Climates, that the Fruit are become sweet and pleasant.  
I own that Apples were a long time despised, and that in Arabia they have even been accused of Contributing to the Prizick, and to the drying of the whole Body. It has been said also that they caused weakness in the Joints, and that consequently they increased the Gout and other Fluxions, that they engendered Worms in the Bowels, and that finally they caused Vertigo's, as experience shows it us, and as it happened formerly to Scipio Gentilis a famous Civilian, who after Meals abused these sorts of Fruits.  
But if Men have talked after this manner, either it has been because they knew not Apples well, and that they have been taken for other Fruit, or they judged of them, as Men do of all other things, by the ill success of those who have abused them: for if we will examine the thing very narrowly, we shall find that the Arabians had none but Apples that were wild, acerb and very unpleasant to the taste; that the weakness of the Joints, the Worms of the Bowels, and the Vertigo's are caused but by the excesses which are committed with them, or by the ill precautions that are taken in their use.  
On the contrary, Apples which are sweet and Luscious, Odoriferous and firm, exhilerate the Heart, and allay the excess of its heat; they correct the Gall of the Liver, they dilute the Blood, which is too thick and gross: in a word they cool and moisten the heated Viscera: Moreover, whatsoever is said, they oppose the drying of the Body and the Ptisick, and we see but very few of these sorts of evils where Cider is common: For this drink is friendly to the Stomach, which it heats in a moderate way; it revives the Heart, and opens the Obstructions of the Entrails: In a word it is of wonderful use to Melancholic and atrabilarious Persons; that which issues the first from Apples squeezed in a Press is not so excellent as the second: and the third resembles the Demy-wine of our Peasants.  
If we mix among Apples a little Powder Sugar, they make us spit, and cool our Breast.  
But they must be used with precaution, that is to say, that they must be eaten after Meals, because they are heavy and difficult to digest, that they ought to be forbidden Old People, unless they find themselves heated, or that they are prepared as Pears with Powder Sugar, Cinnamon and Water, and that finally we ought to drink a little of good Pure Wine after having eaten them.  
In the Distempers which are accompanied with a considerable heat and drought, they give a great relief, if we eat a little of them Crud, or Boiled, or that we put of them in Water: and I wonder that in France we give ourselves so much trouble in seeking Oranges and Citrons for our Diseases, when we have a short-start Apple, or a Spanish Rennet: Haply things which cost much, and are often difficult to be had, are much better than the common, and that they much more satisfy the mind of the Diseased; for it is this part which we ought often to Cure in those who find themselves ill.  
Finally, Apples do not profit us only by taking them at the Mouth, they are a sovereign Remedy for Heart-burnings and for the heats of the Stomach if they are outwardly applied: for if a Cataplasm be made of Boiled Apples, and applied hot on the Region of the Heart, or on the pit of the Stomach, haply we may not find an Epithem more Sovereign in those Cases. Also experience has shown us that the pulp of a boiled Apple put hot on Bloodshed and inflamed Eyes, is almost the only Remedy for this evil.   

ART III. Of Grafted Quinces.  
IT's a pleasant Medicine to Purge one's self by eating after Meals Portugal Quinces: The Fruit which I so call, are the Quinces whose Grafts were brought from that Kingdom, and which are almost as pleasant to eat and to behold as a Boncretien Pear, at least they have an odour more sweet and Luscious; they are yellow as Gold, and yield in nothing to those Pears in greatness, Figure and Beauty.  
Quinces are cold and dry, they restringe also manifestly the parts of the Body where they are applied; and 'tis by this astringent quality, that constringing the Stomach in the upper part, and afterward the Intestines, after that they are eaten, they squeeze, and force out all they meet within their cavity, be it Excrement, Choler or Phlegm. Its what happened to an Advocate of Pergamus, of whom Galen speaks, who was pleasantly Purged after having eaten Quinces after a Meal, and having walked a little upon it: so that after all the experiments that we have had of them, we ought no longer to doubt of their Virtues.  
Mean while the stirring of the Belly which they cause, does not happen but to Persons who have the Stomach weak and nice, and who have need by reason of this to fortify it; for these Fruits do not work the same effects in a young robust Man; and on the other side, if they are eaten before Meals, being very far from moving the Belly, they make it tardy; and it is so that those do who have it ordinarily too moist.  
Quinces have also other excellent Virtues; if they are eaten Crud, Boiled, or preserved with Sugar, they give an appetite, they stop a Looseness, appease Vomiting, withstand an old Dysentery and a Bloodyflux; and if wescrape off them Crud, and put the pulp of them hot on the Region of the Heart in the form of an Epitheme, when a Malignant Fever attacks us, they contribute not a little toward the subduing it: Their penertrating and sweet odour revives the Heart and the Brain, and it has not been heard said hitherto, that Quinces corrupt in the Stomach.  
I very much approve the method which some have of making Wine and Water of Quinces. These two Drinks have near the same Virtues, unless it be that the Water is most proper for those who find themselves much heated, and the Wine more meet for those who do not find any predominant quality, and who are old or Phlegmatic.  
The Water of Quinces which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is made after this manner. We take in the Month of October fifty or sixty pints of Fountainwater, of Paris Measure [which comes near to our Quart] we put into it ten or twelve Pounds of Portugal Quinces, pared, cleansed, and cut in slices; they steep there till the Water has a yellow colour like that of Spanish Wine; after which we strain this Water, and then let it seethe over a gentle Fire till the fourth part be consumed, scumming it often, and after having put it in a Vessel well filled and well stopped, we preserve it for the Month of March following.  
The Wine is made after this manner; we take at Vintage time Ten or Twelve Pounds of Portugal Quinces, prepared after the same manner as I have said, we throw them into fifty or sixty pints of good Claret Must, and after that they have wrought for thirty days, we strain the Liquor, we put it into another Vessel which we stop up close, and we preserve it for use.  
These two Drinks produce good effects in Persons who use of them; they fortify the inward parts, oppose a Looseness and a Dysentery, cleanse the Reins of their filth, hinder the Vapour of Wine from offending the Head, and secure us from Pestilential Vapours: Finally, they cause so many good effects, that I must pass the bounds of an abstract if I would name them all   

ART. iv Of Medlars and Services.  
THese Fruits are seldom at our Tables, and they are eaten most commonly but in a fancy; they are not very agreeable, and there is but little pleasure taken in eating them. Mean while they are not without their use, and contribute something to our Health. They are both so near allied in qualities that a Person will not deceive himself if he takes the one for the other. They are cold and dry when they are hard, but when they are softish they acquire a better heat, by a sort of Corruption, that is to say, that they are not so cold; after the first way they restringe more and nourish less: and they ought to be used as Quinces, and to be eaten after Meals soft, Crud, Roasted, Boiled in Wine with Powder Sugar and Cinnamon, or finally Fried in fresh Butter, which does not render them disagreeable to the taste through the Skill of the Cook.  
But because after all these manners they produce the like effects as Quinces, this will oblige me to pass in silence what I have said in the precedent Article: I shall only add here, that the Stones of Medlars being powdered, and then taken by the Mouth to the weight of a Gold Crown in White-wine, cleanse the Reins of their Impurities, and even drive forth Stones which are small enough to pass through the ureters, and afterward through the Passage of the Urine.  
In reality these Stones are extremely dry, and they have in their matter particles which powerfully penetrate; for experience has taught me that the Stones of Fruits, and the hardest bones of Beasts and Fishes provoke Urine as specific Remedies. I do not doubt but that which Brassavolus has left us in Writing concerning the Virtues of the Stones of Medlars, is true, since he proves it by two sick Persons who were Cured thereby.  
But we ought not to suffer ourselves to be abused on this account by the promises of Quacks and Mountebanks, who boast to have certain Remedies for breaking the Stone in the Reins or in the Bladder: I know not whether the Stones of Medlars have more Virtue in Italy than in France, but at least I know by experience and reason, that neither the Stones of Medlars, nor all other Remedies have the force to break the Stone, nor to drive it forth of the Bladder, when it is to big too pass forth.  
The chief Virtue of Services is to cool and to restringe, as we have said: it's through these qualities that they serve for powerful Remedies against moist Diseases, against inveterate Loosnesses, and against long Dysenteries. Perhaps the Learned Bruyerius had not been Cured of a Malignant Dysentery which lasted him above a Month, if he had not eaten a great many Services; so true it is that the presumptuous boldness which we have in trying Remedies in our long Distempers, often succeeds much better with us than prudence itself.    

CHAP. III. Of Fruits, which may be eaten before, or after Meals.  
THere are Fruits which may be eaten at all times, because they do not corrupt in our Stomach, but through our fault: Wherefore we ought to have a peculiar design, and different precautions in using them. One Person would only cool and moisten himself. And besides this, another will have a farther design of rendering the Belly soluble: thus there may be need of these Fruits in different occasions.  

ART. I. Of Raisins.  
THe most excellent Raisins which our Province furnishes us with, and which are ordinarily served at our Table, are those which are sweet, tasting of Sugar and Amber: many prefer them to all other Fruits; and they yield us a Liquor, which is the most agreeable and richest present that ever God gave to Man. If I would extend myself here on the Encomium of Raisins, I persuade myself that I should find but too much matter to say fine things of them; but, because I proposed to myself to Write only concerning the use of the Fruits of Trees as briefly as possible; I must be allowed to deliver my thoughts in a few words concerning the use of Raisins eaten before or after Meals.  
But before I explain myself thereon, I fancy that I ought to establish some general Maxims, for well using them, without being damnified thereby.  
A Woman who has the Stomach nice and weak must never eat Raisins newly gathered; they puff up the Belly, they cause a rumbling and winds, and trouble the Concoction of the Stomach: moreover she must not eat but of such as are excellent and very ripe, and again she must not so much as look on those which have grown in the shade, and which the Sun has not heated with its rays.  
To correct the ill quality of Raisins, they must be gathered some days before you will eat them, or else you may take such as have been hung up in a Chamber, or if at time of Vintage you have an inclination for eating such as are fresh, they must be dipped into boiling Water, and then into fresh Water, and so they must be served to Table.  
Raisins are moist and moderately hot, and by these two qualities they are proportionate to the Principles of our Life; they nourish much more than other Fruits, if we except Figgs: they revive the Spirits by their sweet and odoriferous savour, they cheer up a Stomach which is languishing and heated through Labour, and moisten the Viscera, and so correct by their pleasant moisture the drought and which the heat of Autumn has there caused.  
Nay there are Physicians who do not deny them to their sick Patients when they begin to amend, tho' on condition that they eat them with Bread, and throw away the Stones and the Skin, as two parts which cannot be digested by a Stomach how robust soever.  
If they are eaten fasting, without Bread, as they come from the Tree moistened with the Dew of the Night, they purge the Belly even of those who have it naturally tardy; there is neither Water of Cassia nor Manna which ought to be preferred to Raisins so eaten.  
We ought here to remember not to drink Wine unless it be well diluted, after having eaten Raisins fasting: Nay it would be better not to drink at all, or to drink only pure Water; pure Wine mixed in the Stomach with the new Juice of the Raisins makes so extraordinary a fermentation, that the accidents which arise from it are much greater than you may imagine: For the Wine carries the Chyle and the Juices into the Bowels and into the Reins, before they are digested, and so causes impurities and indigestions in the Blood; whereas Water hindering the great ebullition of the Stomach, contributes to a good Concoction; it causes the Chyle to become more pure, and that we are more refreshed and moistened by the use of the Raisins.  
We ought not so to do when we eat them after Meals, for we may drink a good Glass of pure Wine, and not consider so much the Raisins prepared as we have said before, as the food which we have taken at our Meal.  
Tho the Stones cannot be digested, yet we ought not to throw them away when we eat Raisins after Meals: For since they are astringent, they correct the great humidity, which is the cause of the evils which they bring upon us. We must chew them therefore very small, and reduce them to minute parts betwixt the Teeth, that they may contribute to the Coction of our Stomach, and correct the ill qualities of the Raisins: It is thus we ought to eat after Meals the dry Raisins which are brought from Spain; for by nourishing and lenifying our inward parts they solace them by their sweetness, and fortify them by the astriction of their Stones.  
I shall not pass by here the excellent drink which is made with dry Raisins, and is called de Cabat. The Stones must be taken away from fifteen or twenty Pounds, and then the Raisins must be bruised a little: and in the Month of January or of February, which is the time that they are brought to us from Spain, they must be put in an excellent Barique (a Vessel somewhat more than our Barrel) of White-wine to drink at Easter. This Wine will have the colour of a Spanish Wine, it will be pleasing to the , and will have qualities not to be contemned; for it lenifies the Breast, appeases the Cough, helps respiration, and fortifies the Stomach and the Liver, creates an Appetite, opposes inclinations to Vomit, stops a Looseness; in a word, it is an excellent Remedy against the Dropsy, it agrees admirably with Old men, with Valetudinarians, with Phlegmatic or Melancholic Persons, and finally with Women of a tender Constitution.   

ART. II. Of China and Portugal Oranges.  
THe Grafted Orange-trees which were brought from China into Portugal, and which have been multiplied in the later Kingdom, produce Oranges which have a fine Rind, a vinous Juice, and which are very pleasant to eat; they may be used before or after Meals, for being more moist than cold, they qualify also after Meals a Stomach too hot and too dry, and so help Concoction.  
Those which are brought us ordinarily from Portugal are sharp or aigres-douces, they are colder than the former, and they refresh more, and more oppose the Corruption of our humours.  
Sharp Oranges ought never to be used after Meals, they hinder the digestion of the Stomach by their coldness, but they are very proper for quenching the heat of our Liver, and to give us an appetite, if we take the Juice before Meals with Water and a little Powder Sugar, but especially when the great heats of the Summer or of Autumn exhaust our strength.  
I say no more here, for that I will not repeat what I have said in the Article of Cherries, where you may see what sharp Fruits are capable of doing within us, and the precautions we must take to use of them. I shall only say that the Rinds of sharp Oranges being squeezed a little into Wine, renders it more agreeable to the taste of many Persons, and makes it pass more readily by Urine.  
Our sick Persons use both the one and the other, and if you will believe them on their own experience, they will tell you that there is not a better Remedy than these Fruits for quenching Thirst, cooling the Stomach, qualifying the Liver, provoking Urine, taking away the Heart burning, opposing inward Poisons; in a word, for Curing the Diseases which are accompanied with an insupportable heat and drought and indeed, if we cut a China or Portugal, vinous Orange into four parts, and throw it into a pot of Water with the Rined, this drink will have all the Virtues even now mentioned.   

ART. III. Of Spanish Pomegranates.  
WE cultivate in our Gardens sweet, Aigres-doux, and sharp Pomegranate-trees which came to us from Spain; for as for those of France which are wild, we cannot eat the Fruits: The Flowers and Rinds of Pomegranates are astringent, and both serve to Cure our Diseases which are caused through a too great humidity. They have the Virtue of constringing the parts of our Body together, and of giving them the Situation which they had lost: The inside of the Kernels of a Pomegranate is useless and undigested, our Stomach cannot dissolve it, and there is no Body who eats it. There is but the pulp which is about the Kernels that yields an agreeable Juice, wherewith we are often solaced in our sicknesses.  
Sharp Pomegranates ought to be used before Meals, when the Stomach is empty; and if the point of their sharpness does us hurt, as it happens in those who have this part weak and tender, we need but blunt it with Water and Sugar to make a delicious Drink: Then this agreeable Liquor cools the Stomach, quenches thirst, qualifies the Liver, weakens the sharpness of the Choler, revives the Heart, resists putrefaction, provokes Urine; in a word, it's a Drink proper for the Sick and sound. It is much better than the Boüillons of Veal, and of cooling Herbs, which are taken too often in the Summer, and in Autumn to qualify the Entrails, and to resist the heat and drought of the Season: for the continual use which is made of Boüillons, is wholly an enemy to the Stomach, their substance relaxes too much the membranes, and to perform well its Office it must have a certain temperament which is not too moist; whereas the Drink of sharp Pomegranates, by restringing it gently, tempers this part, and at the same time all the others.  
Sweet and vinous Pomegranates do not cool so much as the sharp, but they dulcify more, and are more proper for Old and atribilarious Persons.  
Those who find a heat in their Bowels, are very much solaced after having swallowed some Spoonfuls of the Juice of these Fruits: It is so that the Carthaginians used of them, from whose Country Pomegranates were brought: and it were those also who taught us by their own experience the greatest part of the good effects which they cause in us, when we use of them. It cannot be said what goods the Juice of sweet and vinous Pomegranates, pressed forth, scummed, and fermented may produce: it strongly opposes all inward Fluxions, it resists all Fevers which are accompanied with a Looseness and an exhausting of our strength, and it has this proper to it, that it fortifies all our languishing parts. If we will make some Bottles of it, we must squeeze forth in a Press a sufficient quantity of Pomegranates, we must seethe the Juice over a gentle Charcoal Fire to the diminution of the third part, after having well scummed it, and afterward it must be kept for use.  
If we put in White-wine the Kernels of sweet or vinous Pomegranates, or after the same manner as we have prescribed for sharp Cherries, we shall have a Wine which will yield in nothing to all the Remedies which Physic has invented hitherto for allaying the burning of the Reins, for cleansing forth all the filth, and for hindering Stones from being there formed.   

ART iv Of Corands.  
THe Red Corands and the White, which we call Gadelles, have very near the same qualities, tho' the Gadelles are more sharp, and the Red more pleasant to eat. Both of them cool and restring the parts of the Body through which they pass; they hinder Vomiting, quench drought, blunt the Choler, remove Obstructions, fortify the parts, and they solace both the healthy and Sick that are heated, if they are used before or after Meals.  
Their pungent sharpness ought to be corrected, as that of Cherries and Pomegranates, or we may make them into a Sugar Paste or Jelly, which is very proper for those who have the Stomach weakened by long Sicknesses; and I have Cured many Persons of considerable quality, who had this part very much afflicted by continual Vomitings, and had a troublesome Looseness of the Belly, by giving only a Paste or Jelly of Corands, and of the moist conserve of Provins Roses.  
In Imitation of the Turks, during the great heats of the Summer, we may make of the greatest part of the Fruits before spoken of, a sort of Sherbet to be drank with Ice: and I allow young Sanguine and bilous People, who have known by experience that drinking with Ice does not incommode them, I allow them, I say, to drink of it, with prudence for allaying the excess of their heat: This will be a sure means to hinder them from being set upon by continual and Malignant Fevers, and to keep them in good Health during all the Summer and Autumn. As for others who are of another temperament, and of another Age, they must not touch of it, and they must remember that heat, which we must not destroy, is one of the Principles of our Life.     

THE TABLE OF THE Chapters of the First PART.  

THe Art of Pruning Fruit-trees. Pag. 1  
Chap. 1. The Pruning of Fruit-trees for the Month of February. p. 2  
Chap. 2. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the beginning of May. p. 31  
Chap. 3. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the beginning of June. p. 33  
Chap. 4. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the end of July. p 42  
An Explanation of some words used by gardiner's to express themselves speaking of Fruit-trees. p. 48   
The end of the First Table.   

THE TABLE OF THE SECOND PART.  

OF the Use of the Fruits of Trees for keeping us in Health, or for Curing us when we are Sick. Pag. 50  
Chap. 1. Of the Fruits which ought to be eaten before Meals. p. 59  
Art. 1. Of Figgs. p. 60  
Art. 2. Of Nectarins and Peaches. p. 65  
Art. 3. Of Plums and Apricocks. p. 69  
Art. 4. Of Mulberries. p. 71  
Art. 5. Of sharp Cherries. p. 74  
Chap. 2. Of the Fruits which ought to be eaten after Meals. p. 78  
Art. 1. Of Pears. p. 79  
Art. 2. Of Apples. p. 83  
Art. 3. Of Quinces. p. 87  
Art. 4. Of Medlars and Services. p. 90  
Chap. 3. Of the Fruits which may be eaten before and after Meals. p. 93  
Art. 1. Of Raisins. p. 94  
Art. 2. Of China and Portugal Oranges. p. 98  
Art. 3. Of Spanish Pomegranates. p. 100  
Art. 4. Of Corands. p. 103   
The end of Second Table.   

A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for and to be sold by Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet.  

Folio.  
DR. Lightsoots Works in two Volumes.  
Speeds maps, and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Foreign Parts.  
Wanleys' History of Man.  
Bishop Wilkins Real Character.  
Pharmacopeia Londinensis.  
Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.  
Judge Jones Reports.  
Judge Winches Book of Entries.  
Guillims' Heraldry.  
Bishop Saudersons Sermons.  
Foulis History of Romish Treasons.  
Croaks Reports in three Volumes.  
Daltons' Offices of Sheriffs.  
— Justice of Peace.  
Coke Reports in 13 Parts.  
Selden's Jani Anglorum in English.  
Lex Mercatoria.  
Mezerays History of France.  
cowel's Interpreter, Enlarged by Manley.  
Littleton's Reports.  
Dr. Howels History of the World.  
Grotius of War and Peace, English.  
Townsends Historical Collections.  
Pharamont.  
Heaths Chronicle.  
Pettus of Mines and Minerals.  
History of the Cariby Islands.  
brent's History of France.  
Brown's Entries in two Parts.  
Sir Roger Manly's History of the Wars of Denmark.  
Lord Bridgmans' Conveyances.  
Lord Coke 2d. 3d. and 4th Institutes.  
Hutton's Reports with New References.  
Modern Reports.  
Leys Reports.  
Hetleys' Reports.  
The Ten Volumes of Year Books with New References.  
Edward the Second Published by Sergeant Maynard.  
Officina Brevium.  
A Catalogue of all the Common and Statute Law-Books of this Realm, to this present Year, 1684.   

Quarto.  
Dr. Littleton's Dictionary, the Second Edition.  
Gouldmans' Dictionary.  
Coals Dictionary.  
Mieges French Dictionary.  
The Travels of the Patriarches.  
A Discourse of the Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical.  
Doctrina Placitandi.  
Moils Entries.  
Complete Clerk.  
Dr. Parker of the Law of Nature.  
Shepherd's Grand Abridgement.  
Dr. Hayward's two Sermons before the King.  
A Collection of the Cases relating to Church Communion, Written by several Ministers in and about London.  
Counter-Scuffle.  
Mandevil's Travels.  
History of the Seven Champions.  
Dr. sherlock's Sermon on the Discovery of the Plot.  
The Difference of the Case between the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome, and the separation of Dissenters from the Church of England.  
Medicina Curiosa.   

Octavo.  
Mieges French Dictionary.  
The London Practice of Physic, being the whole Practic Part of Dr Willis's Works.  
Dr. Salmon Dispensatory.  
— his Doron Medicum.  
Several Tracts of Mr. Hales of Eton.  
Bishop sanderson's Life.  
Coals Dictionary Latin and English.  
Bishop Wilkins Sermons, never before Extant.  
— Principles and Duty of Natural Religion.  
filmer's Patriarcha.  
Mieges French Grammar with a Vo cabu lary and Dialogues.  
— short French Grammar.  
Mieges Present State of Denmark.  
— Cosmography.  
Berniers Travels.  
Art how to know Men.  
Pools English Parnassus.  
Dr. Whitby of Idolatry.  
Dr. Hinckley and Mr. Baxters' Letters.  
Shepherd's Actions for Slander.  
— Action on the Case for Deeds.  
Blounts' Ancient Tenors.  
Complete Solicitor, entering Clerk and Attorney.  
Touchstone for Gold and Silver.  
Pettyt's Rights of the Commons.  
— Miscellanies.  
The Egyptian History.  
Atwoods' Jani Anglorum facies Nova.  
Sir John Pettus of the Constitutions of Parliaments.  
Russian Impostor.  
Ogilbys Aesop's Fables with Cuts.  
Lawrence's Interest of Ireland.  
A New Book of Instruments.  
French Monarchy.  
Anglers vade Meum.  
Scarons' Novels.  
Meriton of Dreams.  
Clerk's Tutor.  
Brown of Fines and Recoveries.  
Kitchen Physic.  
Posing of the Parts.   

Duodecimo.  
Heylins' help to History.  
Lukins Chief Interest of Man.  
Help to Discourse.  
Mother's Blessing.  
Grotius de veritate Relig. Christ.  
Bishop laud's Devotions.  
Lady's Calling.  
Vaughan of Coins and Coinage.  
Meritons' Guide for Constables.  
— Landlord's Law.  
Phillip's Principles of the Law.  
Manwaring of Consumptions.  
Catalogue of Law Books.  
Pharniacopeia Londoniensis.  
Butler's Rhetoric.  
Lucian's Dialogues Greek and Latin.  
Tully's Select Epistles.   
FINIS.