HIS MAJESTY'S GRACIOUS LETTER TO THE EARL OF SOVTH-HAMPTON, Treasurer, and to the Council and Company of Virginia here: commanding the present setting up of Silk works, and planting of Vines in Virginia.  
And the Letter of the Treasurer, Council, and Company, to the Governor and Council of State there, for the strict execution of his Majesty's Royal Commands herein.  
Also a Treatise of the Art of making Silk: OR, Directions for the making of lodgings, and the breeding, nourishing, and ordering of Silkworms, and for the planting of Mulberry trees, and all other things belonging to the Silk Art.  
Together with instructions how to plant and dress Vines, and to make Wine, and how to dry Raisins, Figs, and other fruits, and to set Olives, Oranges, Lemons, Pomegranates, Almonds, and many other fruits, etc.  
And in the end, a Conclusion, with sundry profitable remonstrances to the Colonies.  
Set forth for the benefit of the two renowned and most hopeful Sisters, Virginia, and the Summer-Ilands.  
By john Bonoeil Frenchman, servant in these employments to his most Excellent Majesty of Great Britain, France, Ireland, Virginia, and the Summer-Ilands.  
Published by Authority.  
London Printed by Felix Kyngston. 1622.   

 royal seal 
BRITAINIAE ❀ FRANCIAE ❀ ET ❀ HIBERNIAE ❀ SIGILUM ❀ REGIS ❀ MAGNAE ❀    

JAMES R.  
RIght trusty and well-beloved, We greet you well: Whereas We understand, that the Soil in Virginia naturally yieldeth store of excellent Mulberry trees, We have taken into Our Princely consideration, the great benefit that may grow to the Adventurers and Planters, by the breed of Silkworms, and setting up of Silkworms in those parts. And therefore of Our gracious Inclination to a design of so much honour and advantage to the public, We have thought good, as at sundry other times, so now more particularly to recommend it to your special care, hereby charging and requiring you to take speedy order, that our people there, use all possible diligence in breeding Silkworms, and erecting Silkeworkes, and that they rather bestow their travel in compassing this rich and solid Commodity, then in that of Tobacco; which besides much unnecessary expense, brings with it many disorders and inconveniences. And for as much as Our servant, john Bonoeil hath taken pains in setting down the true use of the Silkworm, together with the Art of Silkemaking, and of planting Vines, and that his experience and abilities may much conduce to the advancement of this business; We do hereby likewise require you to cause his directions, both for the said Silkeworkes and Vineyards, to be carefully put in practice throughout our Plantations there, that so the work may go on cheerfully, and receive no more interruptions nor delays.  
Given under Our Signet, at our Palace of Westminster, the ninth day of july, in the twentieth year of our Reign of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the five and fiftieth. To Our right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor, HENRY, Earl of South-hampton, Treasurer of our Plantation in Virginia, and to Our trusty and well-beloved, the Deputy, and others of Our said Plantation. Virginia.   

May it please the Reader to amend the faults in Printing thus.  
Pag. line  Amend. 17. 17. seven or eight weeks six or seven weeks 66. 20. in store of Bears in store of Bevers 69. 19 millions of Mulberry trees millions of Mulberry seeds 70. 11. to this Silkworm to this Silk work ibid. 21. of the Silkworms breed of the Silkworms bred ibid. 30. the Silkworms spinning the Silkworms coming 76. 4. strest rule strest rules ibid. 18. only Spain only in Spain 82. 4. and a●ngentle them and engentle them   

TO THE RIGHT NOBLE COMPANY OF VIRGINIA, health.  
My Lords and others,  
I Have been induced to present this small Tract unto you from the superaboundant desire I have to further and advance the good success of that noble Plantation: This discourse is therefore touching the feeding and entertainment of your Silkworms: it shows how Mulberry trees must be planted, and their leaves gathered, how to sow the seeds of Mulberry trees for him that will set up a Seminary or Orchard of the best trees of that nature: also how to erect, set up, and build houses for the Silkworms: withal, this gives direction how to plant and set the Vine, how to dress and till it, of sundry sorts and fashions. Likewise it shows when the grapes are fit to be gathered, and how they are to make Wine. Furthermore, how to plant and set Peach trees and Fig trees, which in hot countries are commonly set amongst Vines, in Vineyards in the open fields: Also, how to set the stones of diverse kinds of fruits, and how to dry both Raisins, Figs and Peaches, to keep and preserve long. I have a servant of mine, who hath dwelled in Virginia these six years, besides others of my friends and acquaintance, of the Country of Languedock in France (which now dwell in Virginia also, being sent thither at the great charge of the Company, to make silk and dress Vines) all which have certified me by their letters, which I have received from thence, that the Woods in Virginia are full of Mulberry trees, of the tallest and broadest that ever they saw in any Country, and great numbers there are of sundry sizes and bigness: and namely, that they have seen there some special trees, of which one alone is able to bring forth as many leaves as will feed so many Silkworms, as shall yield five pound of silk per annum. Also, they inform me, that there is great abundance of Vines in Virginia, and many of them well loaden with Grapes: but because that young growing wood, bushes and weeds, so much choke and cover them, they cannot come to their full ripeness: and the vermin, by reason the grapes grow in the woods, eat many of them up before they come to maturity: moreover, they avouch that Virginia is a better Country than Languedock, which is one of the fruitfullest Provinces in all France, by reason of the heat thereof and the richness of the soil, which notwithstanding, if so be Virginia be once well inhabited and peopled, it must needs exceed it; namely for this reason, because the Mulberry trees, and the Vines do both grow naturally in Virginia, with many other good things, which come only by force and labour in the best parts of France: and none may doubt hereof, to wit, that the Vine being chosen of the best plants there, and well dressed▪ but that it will assuredly bring forth very good fruit. Also, other Vine plants may be sent thither from other Countries, to try which of them will prove best: and of that which we have formerly said, that the Mulberry trees grow in abundance naturally in Virginia, it must needs thence follow, that the Worms will feed much better, and with less labour of men, than those in other Countries do, where Mulberry trees grow only, with main labour and toil, and the silk also of them will be far better: and such quantity of silk may easily be made in Virginia (if there were store of hands) as in a very short time it would serve all Christendom. What an honour and wealth it would be to this Kingdom of England, all men may judge.  

2. The manner how to prepare the places, wherein Silkworms are to be nourished.  
Certain, yea and many Authors have written, that such places are neither to be too near the earth, nor too near the tiles; neither too low nor too high: to whom I confess, this is good for such men as have choice of places; but there are many poor folks, that are not able to get housing with all commodities and fitness: and I have seen by experience in the Country of Languedock, Provence, and in Seuenes, and in the Country of Auignon, and in some part of Italy, certain poor folks which dwell out of Towns, which have but one house upon an earthen floor, and in it but one room, where at one end they have their bed, and at the other they dress their meat, which notwithstanding nourish Silkworms in it, in the season of the year, at which time they prepare and set forth a corner of the said cottage to the same effect, according to the quantity of the leaves which they have: And oftentimes they pay for the leaves of a great Mulberry tree, six or eight shillings the year, yea and many times the Worms thrive better in them, then in great Chambers with other men, I mean, for the little quantity of Worms which such poor people have.  
Moreover I have observed, that the Silkworms do love and affect the air that comes from the dry sweet earth: provided that care be had when the weather is cold, or moist, to make some fire in such rooms, either of wood or of coals, that are not of any strong smell.   

3. Of the building of houses to nourish Silkworms in.  
THose that will build with small charges houses in Virginia, wherein to feed Worms after the manner as is practised in Messina in Sicily (in which country there is some store of Mulberry trees within the Woods) it is a thing which may easily be done also in Virginia, because there are likewise great numbers of Mulberry trees there within the Woods, and the Country hot, and all things for this purpose most fitting. This to do then, they must choose a place in a good air, and near the Mulberry trees, and there build a long house, in form of a Bowling Alley, covered over; but a little higher and somewhat larger. They must cover it well, either with tiles, planks, or other things, against the heat and rain, for the preservation of the Worms. And the sides of the walls must be well closed either with plaster, planks or other matter. In these walls, make many windows on both the sides of the house; let the windows be of wood, to open and shut, and to give air to the Worms, whensoever they need it; and for as much as the South wind is hurtful to the Worms, those windows must be shut carefully on that side, when the wind blows there; these windows may be covered with paper, which windows may be set on and taken off the hinges when need is. Furthermore, some must watch, that neither Rats, Mice, Birds, nor Poultry come there; for they will eat up the Worms. Likewise the Pissemires sometimes hurt them much, and therefore care must be had, to mark the places on which side they come, and there sow sawdust of Oak wood, Ashes, or Lyme, or else rub the walls whereby they pass, with chalk, or with the oil of juniper, or any other kind of oil, on the outside of the house only: for on the inside of the house, oil would be hurtful to the Worms; beware also, that the paper of the windows be not oiled.   

4. Touching the erecting and building up of Hothouses or Ovens.  
Such men as are provided of fit houses as aforesaid for the said Worms, may build in them Hothouses, as they make in such countries, wherein they nourish great numbers of Silkworms. They must build of these Hothouses, at both the ends of the house, if it be great and spacious; but if the house be little, one will be enough. And it must be built in this form following. First, a hole must be made in the house wall, wherein you will build your Hothouse or Oven, and therein build up, as it were an Oven, after the manner of the Country Ovens. The Ovens mouth must be at the outside of the house, with a little Chimney to it, and the back of the Oven, within the inside of the house. Then must you have earthen pots, like Flower pots, without holes in the bottoms, and scarce so big as they, which must be made purposely, so as they may be able to abide the fire▪ These pots must be placed with a distant proportion of space, between pot and pot, and so build them in, within the vault of the said Oven, with brick and clay; the mouth of the said pots must stand out at the back of the Oven, and look into the inside of the house, but the bottoms of the pots must stand and look towards the fire, within the inside of the Oven: and in this manner must the pots be incorporate within the Oven. After this done, you may make fire in the Oven when need shall be; for the pots being hot, will thereby cast a heat out, and warm all the house, and the smoke gets out at the chimney of the Ovens mouth, at the outside of the house. Item, it will be good to put into these pots, certain branches of Rosemary, or Time, Roses, or other sweet smells, for that is a mean to keep the house in a temperate and reasonable heat, as need and occasion requireth. Besides, those sweet smells are very agreeable and pleasing to the Worms. These Ovens or Stoves will be very useful in Virginia, principally in those Silkeworme-houses which shall be built amongst the Woods, where store of Mulberry trees grow: for these places being more cold, shady, and moist than others, where the sun comes freely: by this means they may heat, dry, temper, and well qualify the air there as they please, and make the place thereby every way well agreeing to the Silkworms.  
In these woody places also, you shall do well to cut down all other trees that grow near to the Mulberry trees, and over-shade them, and also to prune off the boughs of the Mulberry trees that grow too thick, that so the Sun may come fairly to the trees and leaves, for the bettering of the food for the Silkworms.   

5. Of the greatness of the Houses.  
MEn may build them as great, or as little as they please, albeit the larger, still the more commodious: howsoever, it will be well, to make a partition in one end of the house, and to board that corner so parted with boards, to cool the leaves in it, as soon as they are gathered, and to make a door on the outside, to go in thereat to lay in the leaves, and the other door on the inside, to take out and give meat to the Worms. Item, it will be convenient to make either in the midst of the house, or against the walls, as they shall judge the fittest, a certain frame of wood, with boards or little Tables, one stage or story still above another, every one of which stages of tables or shelves, must be distant from another, one foot and a half, or thereabouts, and in every frame, there may be five or six stories or rooms of shelves, according to the height of the roof of the house, all of one distance one from the other; And as touching the breadth of the said tables or shelves of these frames, they must be four foot broad, those shall be set in the middle of the house: But such as shall be set against the wall, must have but three foot breadth, because they cannot serve & reach leaves to the Worms, that shall be laid upon them, but on the one side. It is to be noted, that the boards or shelves that are to be put in such frames, are to be of Fir, or of other wood that hath no strong and ill smell, or else let them be made of Reeds, or best of all of Indian Mats, to serve in stead of shelves of wood: for these are the fittest of all other, because they keep the Worms more dry and fresh in hot weather, by reason of the wind that blows thorough them. These Mats may have cross joices of board to support them, or else Cord put thorough the bored holes of the sides of the frame, as bedcords in a bedstead; but if the Tables or Stages be made of boards, than they are to be very thin, to the end they may not receive too much moistness from the Worms. The frame must be made very firm and strong, lest if it fall, it kill all your Worms, and you lose your labour, which hath happened to some.  
Touching the length of the said Frames, they may be according to the length of the boards you have: but if the boards happen to be very long, than they must be vnderpropt with some piece of wood in the middle. Men mayset up such Frames in little houses, as well as in great houses, but less, according to the bigness of the house; Also they may take away such Frames once a year, namely, after that the Worms have spun their silk, and so for that time the house may serve for some other use: provided always, they dress, nor take no Tobacco there; for it is exceeding contrary and mortal to the Worms; even the very breath of one that hath taken it, breathing upon them, will certainly kill them. Likewise care must be had, once every year when you set up the said Frames and Tables, to wash them well, and to rub them with sweet smelling herbs, as with Rosemary, Time, Fennell or such like.   

6. The time when Silkworms are to be hatched out of their seeds or eggs.  
FIrst of all, when the Spring time is come, and you see that the Mulberry trees thrust forth great buds, and their leaves begin to show forth themselves, then must you take the Silk-wormes seed, according to the quantity of leaves, and the room of the house that you have to feed them in, and put the said seed within a new box, or in a clean linen cloth, and keep the seed reasonable warm, either within your pocket or otherwise. After four or five days, you shall visit it very often, and as soon as you see some Worms hatched, then must you put the seed in a bigger box, if the former be too little, but let it be very clean: and care must be had, that the said seed be no thicker in the box, then half an inch thick. After that, you must take a piece of clean paper, of the roundness or compass of the box, and fill it with holes, as big as the tag of a point can make, and lay that round paper over the seed in the box; then set Mulberry leaves, the youngest and tenderest leaves you can get, over the said paper, that the Worms may pass thorough the holes, and feed on the leaves.  
Also care must be had, that when you shall see the leaves covered with little and blackish Worms, you must draw them out of the box, with the whole leaves, with the point of a pin or such like thing, and lay them in sheets of great and strong paper, turning up all the edges of the said paper about an inch or more, for the better containing of the Worms, and easier removing them, or in a bigger box, the leaves with the Worms upon it, close by one another: and as soon as you have taken away both leaves and Worms, put in new fresh leaves, the youngest and tenderest upon the said seed, and so do still, till all the Worms be hatched: for sometimes it will be seven or eight days till they all can be hatched.  
Then put together all such as were hatched in two or three days, without mingling them with those that are bigger or lesser, and give them fresh leaves once a day. Also care must be had, that while the Worms come forth of the seed, to keep it in reasonable warmth, either near the fire or between two pillows, which are for that end to be warmed often, yet in a mean, lest you spoil all with too much heat.   depiction of scaffold with leaves 
By this figure is showed the order, to rank the tables on the scaffolds, for to lay the leaves on, to feed the worms there.   depiction of scaffold with rods 
By this figure is showed the manner to place the rods between the tables for the Worms to climb up 〈…〉 d spin their silk.   depiction of silk weaving engine 
By this figure is showed the fashion of the Engine, how to wind oft the silk from the cod, with the furnaces and cawtherns for that purpose.   depiction of cocoons and butterflies 
By this figure is showed the portraits of the cod, and the Butterflies comen forth of them, to engender and lay their eggs upon black Serge, Chamblet, Tammey or such like stuffs as hath been said.   

7. How to enlarge the Silkworms, and cleanse them from ordure as they grow.  
WHen you perceive the Worms begin to wax in bigness, and therefore press one another too much, about a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, after that you have given them fresh leaves, you shall take out the said leaves again, together with all the Worms from the said paper or box, and shall set them in a larger place; and if there remain any Worms upon the old leaves, then must you set fresh leaves in a small quantity, to the end the Worms may gather themselves upon them, to be taken out as we have said: which when they have done, you may cast out the old leaves and their ordure; and this must be done twice a week or thereabouts.  
It is to be noted, that in hot countries, the Worms do eat but seven or eight weeks at most, in a whole year, and the four first weeks after they be hatched, they require but very small attendance.  
Also it is to be noted, that the Worms, before they come to their perfection, have four sicknesses, natural to them, as we will show.   

8. Touching their first sickness.  
EIght or ten days after that you shall see the Worm's heads grown big and white, it is a sign that they enter into their first sickness, and mewing or changing their first skin. Then shall you see them hide themselves under the leaves, without eating of them. Then must you give them but a few leaves, namely, to feed these among them that be not sick, and those only▪ for you are to know, that their sickness comes not to them all and every one at once and the same time. Two or three days after that, you shall see them come from under the leaves of a grayish colour, and creeping upon the leaves that are freshly set on. Then must you shift them to another place, and cleanse them as we have said.  
Also you are to note, that until such time as the Worms have passed their third sickness, you are to lay under them, upon the tables or shelves, leaves of broad, course, clean paper, and twice a day give them new and fresh green leaves to feed on, laying the smooth sides of the leaves upward, and that side of the leaf which is full of veins and strings downward, for the Worm comes up to the upper part of the leaf always to feed, and it feeds best, and with most ease, upon the smoothest side of the leaf, being the tenderest. You must also tear the leaf in the middle, or in more pieces, that the Worm may the more readily and easily creep thorough it, to get upon the top of it, which will be more needful in Virginia, because of the broadness of the leaves there.   

9 Their second Sickness.  
EIght days after, or thereabouts, the said Worms being waxen whiter, and bigger by the one half, they begin to enter into their second sickness natural to them. Then may you see them again hidden under the leaves: Then are you to govern them as we have said before, and as they grow bigger, to shift them from time to time, into new, clean, fresh, and more spacious places.   

10. The third natural sickness of Silkworms.  
EIght or ten days more after that, you shall see them wax bigger yet by the one half, remaining under the leaves as aforesaid; then enter they into their sickness, and alteration of their skin. Then must you give them but a few leaves, as we said before, and keep the room where they are, reasonably warm, during their said sickness; for it is the most dangerous of all the rest, for there sometimes some of the Worms grow very yellow, and yield a waterish matter out from them, which is a certain sign of their death, and they are so contagious then unto others, that if then they be not picked from the rest, and thrown away, they will likewise infect them. Then must you change their place as afore, into a larger and more spacious, according as they increase in number and bigness of body. Then may you take them very gingerly & softly, with all the leaves with your finger's ends, very clean. But have special care, that you have touched no Tobacco; and if you have taken any, beware you breathe not near upon them: for this and other strong scents are a pest unto the Worms.  
After their third sickness, give them fresh leaves three times a day: And you must first let the said leaves be cooled an hour or more, for that is better, before you give them to the Silkworms. When the leaves are too fresh, they surfeit, and feed so greedily as to burst themselves. Beware you gather the leaves not wet, that is to say, after the rain, or after the dew, but you must gather them dry: take heed you give them not wet to the Worms; for that will spoil them: therefore you shall do well, if you fear a Raynie season, to gather in fair weather as many leaves as may serve you a day or two: for being kept in a cool place, not moist, as in a dry Soller or such like, and the leaves something spread abroad, and often turned that they heat not, after this sickness, you may set your Worms upon the shelves without paper, if you will.   

11. Their fourth natural sickness.  
EIght or ten days more, after that, more or less, the Worms enter into their fourth sickness: Now are they waxen far bigger of body, than ever before; Then must you govern, and attend them as we have before described.  
And then you must provide more places, according to the quantity of the Worms you have; And from time to time shift them into fresh and neat places, more ample and large, yet so, as they may be reasonably near one to another; And then give them as many leaves as they will eat, tearing them in the middle.   

12. What provision of branches must be made, to cause. Silkworms to spin their silk.  
Seven or eight days before the Worms be ready to spin, you must make provision of branches of trees, of the smallest & firmest that can be gotten, as Birchin boughs, Heath or Hather, Broome, cuttings of Vines, or any flexible and bending tough branches: they must not be used green, but dry, for fear the moistness of the green branches hurt the Worms; And mingle with these boughs certain sweet herbs, as Rosemary, Time, or Lavender, because the Silkworms love greatly aromatical smells, but not scents that are strong and unpleasant.   

13. The time when to cause Worms to spin; and how you are to set and dress up boughs.  
TEn or twelve days, after the Worms shall have attained to their full bigness of body, according to their course of nature; then shall you see some of them run upon the green fresh Mulberry leaves, without eating any of them. If then you perceive them to be very bright and clear in their belly and neck, that is a sign and token they are ready to spin.  
Then are you to prepare and set up your boughs and branches, and set them in ranks, upon the stories of shelves or tables, upright standing, the bigger end resting upon the lowest shelf, and the small end of the said boughs, resting against the next upper shelf or board to that, and spread them about, arching at large what you can, to the end the Worms may have more room and scope, to make their balls or bottoms of Silk, leaving a foot and a quarter distance, between the said boughs one from another, at the bigger, and lower end of them. And between the two sides or arches of these said boughs, upon the shelf you are to set your Worms, and give them fresh, green, and tender leaves, as much as they will eat. And as you shall perceive them to be ready to make their Silk, they will be climbing up, upon the said boughs. And if you see any of them not to get up, but wander here and there from the said branches, not finding them, you must take him, or them with your fingers, cleanly, and nicely, and set it at the foot of the bough: for then, if he be ready to spin, he will get upon it.  
At that time, you must cleanse them very often, because they dung much; and than you may handle them with the hand, for that rejoices them, so you have a care not to crush or press them. And when you shall see that there remain but a few to spin, take the rest, and put them with others of the same forwardness. Let care be had always, as well of those that gather the leaves, as those that handle the Worms, that their hands be very neat and clean, as we have remembered.  
Likewise you must have care, when the weather is cold, or moist, to have some fire in the room. If you cast a little Vinegar upon the coals, or some sweet smelling herbs, or flowers, into the pots built in the Ovens to that end, it comforts the Worms. And as for such men as have no such Ovens, they may make some fire in the Chimney of the rooms, or in a pan with wood-coales well kindled first.   

14. When you must draw the Silk balls, bottoms, or cod, after that the Worms have made them.  
TEn days after, or thereabouts, that the Silkworms have made their silk balls, or bottoms upon the boughs; then are you to take away the branches with the balls, and to take the cod off from the said boughs or branches. Then also must you choose out the very best Silk balls, to make as much seed, as you will preserve for the next year. There goes two hundred Silk cod, or bottoms, to make one ounce of seed: But if they be double, that is to say, if there be found two or three Worms in one Silk ball or bottom, as it often falleth out, we are to judge and estimate then, that one hundred couple of Worms will make one ounce of seed, or thereabouts. And one ounce of seed bringeth forth six, eight, and ten pounds of Silk by the year, more or less, according as the season is fitting. In Valencia, in Granada, and in sundry other places, they keep ordinarily for seed, those bottoms of Silk, wherein are two or three Worms a piece: because their Silk is neither so fine, nor so easy to be spun, as the others. They may be known by the handling of them, for they are stronger, rounder, and bigger than the rest: But sometimes it falleth out, that the Worms cannot break thorough their Silk bottoms; in such case, they must be clipped at the smaller end with the point of a pair of Sisers, without cutting the piece clean off from the bottom, in which you must have a care not to offend the Worms: Then with a needle and a thread, must you thread them together, not thrusting the needle thorough the body of the bottom, but at one side; only passing the needle thorough the first course down or sleeve.  
Note also, that such silk bottoms as have but one Worm, you need not to cut them. Then hang them upon nails, or wooden pins, where Vermine cannot come. And when the Worms shall come forth and be Butterflies, you are to take them by the wings, and set them upon certain shelves; to the end that the male and the female may couple together. Also then must you be provided of some stuff, old or new, that hath no wool upon it (but use no linen or paper) and hang up the said stuff in some part of the house; then take the Butterflies all coupled together as they are, by their wings, and set them upon the said stuff, be it Say, Piropus, the backside of old Velvet, or such like stuff as hath no wool on it, so hanged up against the walls, as we have said; but in any case, set not them thereon, till they be coupled and joined together; for otherwise the seed would prove worth nothing. And if any be so poor, that they cannot get such stuff, let them take Walnut-tree leaves, one handful, or more, and tie them together by doozens, the back of the leaves on the backside, and hang them at a nail, or pin, and set the coupled Butterflies upon them, as we have said.  
Note that the Butterflies come not out of the Cod commonly but in the morning, about eight a clock.  
You shall know the seed by the colour thereof, the good from the bad, to wit, that of coupled Worms which is good, becometh blackish within eight or ten days after; the other remaineth yellowish, and that is worth nothing.  
When you see that all the Butterflies be dead, and the seed become grayish, you shall take it up with a knife, very gingerly, and that which remaineth upon the leaves, you may take up easily with your fingers. And if by chance some seed should be laid upon paper or linen, it cleaveth so fast, that you cannot get it off, without spoiling it; in such case you must keep it, paper and all, to the next year; and in the due season, the Worms will come forth thereout of themselves. But the other seed gathered from the stuff or leaves aforesaid, you must put in a box, very clean, the sides close pasted with paper, that no air nor dust get in, and keep it in a chest, in a dry temperate place, till the next year: but take heed you keep it neither in too cold, nor in too warm a place; for then the heat would hatch the Worms, though it were in Winter; and then being no leaves to feed them, they starve and dye, and so all your labour is lost.   

15. How you may discern the male Worm, from the female, the silk bottoms of the males, and females, and also the male Butterfly, from the female.  
NOw to know the male Worm from the female, (which cannot be well discerned till the Worms be grown great) you shall distinguish them by their heads, because the male Worm hath his head more wrinkled, having eyes, as a man would think: whereas the female hath her head round, with small appearance of eyes. As for the bottoms, you may know the male, by the form of his silk bottom: for the male maketh his bottom lesser, and very sharp at one end, and but half so sharp at the other end. Whereas the silk bottoms of the females, are bigger, and softer, round at one end, and half pointed at the other.  
As concerning the Butterflies, the male is lesser of body than the female, and stirs the wings oftener than the female, and more strongly.   

16. How you must manage and handle the silk bottoms, to draw their silk out of them, before the Worms turn to be Butterflies.  
AS soon as you have taken the bottoms of silk from the branches abovenamed, before they turn to be Butterflies, it is best to spin the silk from off the bottoms, because after the bottoms have been once pierced, they cannot yield so fine silk, but only a course silk or sleeve. And he that shall not be able to get his silk to be spun, before the bottom may be pierced, which will be about a fortnight, or three weeks, after the Worms have spun, then aforehand you may kill the Worms thus with the heat of the Sun.  
To this end then, you must spread the silk bottoms in the Sun, at noonday, when it is in the greatest heat, upon planks, or such like, for the space of one hour, turning them often. After that, gather them all into a heap, in a linen cloth, and therewith cover them, to smother the Worms within their bottoms, and continue in so doing two or three days. And in case the Sun should be wanting in light and heat, to kill the Worms; then after you have drawn your bread from out the Oven, or else having heated it, to the same measure and proportion of heat, all the embers of the fire first taken out, you may put the bottoms into the Oven, upon wooden boards, or some such like thing, and stir them often, as we have already said: But remember that you leave not the bottoms above an hour in the Oven, lest the silk burn, or being too much dried up, become unfit to be spun afterwards. Beware also the Oven be not too hot. And if the Worms be not dead at the first time, put them in again till they be dead. After that, you must keep the silk bottoms in a place where they may not be pressed together too hard, and where Vermine cannot come. And so you may keep them till you have time convenient to spin the silk. Yet if you can spin the silk before you kill the Worms, the silk will prove much better, and more easy to be spun.  
There is another way, and better, to kill the Worms within their bottoms, for such as can do it; and this they practise at Messina. They have furnaces, and great Cauldrons or Coppers, such as Dyer's use, those they fill half full with water; then they make a fire in the furnace, to heat the water. Then they lay a round lid or cover of plank or board within the Cauldron or Copper, but so borne up by the Copper, that it touch not the water, though it lie near to it, within three or four finger's breadth of it, which round lid or cover must be bored as full of holes as a Sieve: upon this cover they lay a thin Carpet of Darnix, or the like, and upon the Carpet, the silk bottoms are laid, which must be stirred often, and the Cauldron or Copper must be covered above the lid, that the heat may smother the Worms within the bottoms. When the Worms be dead, take up the bottoms, and lay them in some room where there is air, to draw out and dry their moistness. By this means the silk loseth not the colour, and is as good, and as easy to be spun, as if it had been spun as soon as the Worms had made it.   

17. The manner how to prepare the silk bottoms that be pierced, which were kept for seed, how to make of them course silk, and of the best and finest of that kind.  
AS concerning such bottoms of silk as are pierced, they cannot serve to make fine silk, but course, yet of that you shall make the best of that sort, namely, when they be rightly managed in this manner:  
Take the said pierced bottoms, and wash them in fresh water, having by you a Cauldron with clear water in it, which being set on the fire, and ready to boil, put soap in it, and when that it boileth, and the soap is molten, put the silk bottoms in it, and let them boil one quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, and stir them. After that, take them out, and wash them in clean water, and dry them. When they are dried, then must you beat them with a round staff of a good bigness, upon a stone, or other thing, and then they will become white, and smooth as wool: After that, women may spin them, in this manner as followeth:  
First of all, they must pull them with their fingers one after another, and open them very wide as they do wool when they spin it. Then must they put the silk upon the Distatfe, and spin it as small and fine as they can, or will. Others do card it with cards made for the purpose, but than it cannot be spun so even.  
As touching the refuse or dross, that must be carded, for to spin it. He that will have his said course silk yellow, be must put the pierced bottoms in fresh water four or five days, and change the water every day, and press the bottoms with his hands; after that, he must dry them and so they may be spun, as though they had been sodden; and this, without losing their colour.   

18. How you are to gather the Mulberry leaves, so as the trees may best thrive thereby, and the leaves be the better.  
IT is good for him that hath Mulberry trees, that he gather his leaves but once in two years; viz. if he have 500 trees, to gather the leaves of 250. one year, keeping the other half for the next year; nevertheless, such as cannot spare the leaves, may gather them in this manner that followeth:  
Of all the principal boughs and branches of the trees, you are to gather leaf after leaf, leaving the stalks behind, and the ends or tips of the branches together with the younger leaves, to the end that the said boughs or branches may grow so much the better. And as for the little sprigs, that grow within the trees, if they be in too great number, and thick or rank, you may pluck them off with their leaves. As touching young Mulberry trees, you are to gather the leaves only of the principal branches, as we have said. Care must be had to keep the leaves of the older trees, till the Worms have passed their third and fourth sickness; for than it is, that they beget their silk; and the leaves of such old Trees beget more silk than the young ones. And the Worms eat more leaves in three or four days after they are grown to their bigness, than ever they did in all their time before.  
Now, forasmuch as it sometimes falleth out in the Spring time, that it raines two or three days together, so as the leaves cannot dry by the weather; In such a case, while the Worms are yet little, you may cut off some branches of the Mulberry Trees, and hang them up in houses, where the air may come to dry them, and as soon as the leaves be dry, you must pluck them; for otherwise the branches would draw the sap and juice of the leaves to them. Otherwise, if you gather the leaves wet, you may dry them, by spreading them upon a clean linen cloth, stirring them often, and wiping them with another clean linen cloth, till they be dry.   

19 Touching the Husbanding of Mulberry Trees.  
IT is to be noted, that Mulberry trees are to be husbanded, opened, digged, and dunged at the foot, as the Olive tree, namely, in such places where they grow, with main labour of men. But in such places where they grow naturally, where the nature of the soil is such, that it bringeth them forth without so much handy labour, there their fruit is better. And those men that will have some trees planted upon their land, they are to make good choice of them in Summer, and mark them so, as they may know them in Winter, to remove them in the due season fit to plant them in. And to choose the very best of them, you are to cull out such as have round leaves, and not forked, for both the fruit, and the leaves of them are better than those of the other Trees. These five and twenty years I have seen diverse Countries, where they began (and afterwards found it very profitable) to plant Mulberry trees about their grounds, in stead of hedges, where they grow so speedily, that the second year they may begin to gather some leaves, during the time that the Worms are small: forasmuch as the leaves of little trees grow sooner, than they of big Trees. To plant Mulberry trees in form of a thick hedge, for to have the first young leaves, for the Worms new hatched, you must make a ditch of a foot and a half deep, and as broad, and therein plant your young trees, then fill the ditch with earth almost full: then cut off the branches of the trees that you have set; for that will make them grow the better; and place them two foot near one another. And whosoever will have a double hedge of them, let him make another ditch three or four foot near that, and plant it as in the other: Their Wood, when they are plashed, is as good to burn, as any other; and their Ashes better.   

20. How to prepare the seed of Mulberry trees to make a Nursery.  
Whosoever will make a Nursery of the seed of Mulberry trees, when the fruit is ripe, let him observe that Tree, that bears the fairest and roundest leaf; and of that tree let him gather so many Mulberries, as will fit him for his seed, which must be thus used.  
First, wash the mulberies in two or three waters, pressing them with your hands, and then take up the seed that remaineth in the bottom of the water. After that, dry your seed in the house, and keep it till the month of March next coming. Such men as will gain one year, sow it as soon as they have gathered it, without drying it; And other men sow the Mulberries whole as they are, in that manner that we will say.   

21. In what manner you are to sow the seed of Mulberry trees for a Nursery.  
FIrst, you must dig, husband, and make beds of fat earth, the mould being made small, and well dunged with good old dung, thoroughly rotten, and you must make your beds four foot, or four and a half broad: And within the said beds, you must make four or five strait lines of rays or furrows, all half a foot equally distant one from another, and every furrow must be two inches deep, and four broad; And between every bed you must leave little Allies, or spaces half a foot broad, which will serve you to go to weed or water them, without treading upon them. Then are you to sow the seed in the said furrows, and cover it an inch deep or thereabout, of the finest mould.  
The first year you must take care to water it often, if the weather be dry, and the earth must be kept clean from weeds. A year after that, you may pull up, and transplant your Mulberry trees into another ground more at large, viz. two foot one from the other, as ordinarily other trees are disposed of: and there let them grow till they be as big as a man's arm at his wrist, or thereabouts. And then you may transplant them, into the place, or ground, where you will have them continue for ever: Leaving a distance the one from the other, of fifteen or sixteen foot, namely, so as the boughs of one tree grow not within another. Care must be had, that in hot Countries these trees be set deeper into the earth, then in a cold soil, for fear of burning the Roots.   

1. Another Discourse how to plant the Vine, how to dress and husband it sundry ways, how to choose the ground and the seat to that effect.  
FIrst, such as will plant Vines, they are to choose a soil proper and convenient for that use. If you plant it in a low ground, and moist, there the Vine grows well, and bears store of fruit, but the Grapes never ripen well, and therefore the wine is not good, nor can it be kept long. You must then make choice of a dry soil, whose aspect is toward the full South Sun, and covered or sheltered from the Noth wind, if it be possible. And if you meet with rising ground, as the sides of hills hanging down, they are most proper, and though they be full of little stones, and gravel, they are also the better for them, and not the worse; the wine of such places being better able to be kept long, and fitter also to be carried far.  
First, you must open the earth, and dig it one foot and a half deep, or thereabouts. And after you have digged as much earth as you have plants to set, you must make ditches in the said ground looking towards the full South, one foot and a half deep, and as broad, and of the length that the place is of.  
The ditches must be three or four foot distant one from another: so after you have selected your plants, whether with roots, or without, as of slips or cuttings (for the Vine grows aswell without root, as with, and that which is set without root, is of the longer endurance and lasting; though true it is, that the first year it will not grow so much as that which hath roots) These plants I say, must be planted three or four foot one from another, in as much distance as the ditches are one from another. And the Vine plants must be planted in a strait line, in form of a Chequer, quadrangle-wise.  
here observe, that if the plants be without roots, you must cause them to soak in fresh water, twelve or fifteen days ere you plant them, putting the big end of the plant in the water a foot deep. But if they have roots, you must cut them off (unless they were plucked up one day or two at most before you plant them) and put them in water two or three days. He that shall plant the Vine, must have one to help him, who shall lay the Vine in the ditch, all along the said ditch, of what distance he will, one from the other. And in planting, he shall tread in the ditch, letting some of the digged earth fall into the place where he is to plant or set his Vine; then shall he take his plant, and bow it one foot in the earth of the ditch, or thereabouts, according to the length of the plant, putting the biggest end within the ditch, towards the plump, South of the Sunrising, and with the hand, raising up the point, end, or top of it, setting his foot on the root, and casting some mould on it, half a foot deep or more, and treading on it, that it may be firm. And he must do so, all along the ditch, using a line, to plant them with an equal distance, doing the like in, and thorough all the ditches.  
When your Vine shall be thus planted, then let fall more mould within the ditch all along, yet you must not fill it up the first year. Also be sure that you make that earth that is between two ditches, slaunt on both sides. And husbanding the said Vine from time to time, the earth of itself will fall into the ditches, and fill them. The Vine is no sooner planted, but it must be cut, not leaving upon each branch above three knobs or knots, which we call eyes: But the old Vine that is planted about houses, to make long Vines, that must not be cut as yet; for you must leave it all the old wood or branches, and one part of the last years branches; both must be cut the first year, in the beginning of the new Moon: The second year it must be cut at the full Moon, and then leave it but one branch, the lowest and strongest, leaving upon the said branch, but four knobs or knots, or thereabouts, according as the Vine shall be waxed.  
Also you are to note, that in cutting the Vine, you must have a good knife, or rather a sharp hook, as in France, in such a form as the Shoemaker's knife, wherewith you must cut the branches very even, and very near the old wood, to the end that the Vine growing, may cover the cut.  
When you see in the month of May or june, that there grow upon your Vine many sprigs arising from the foot of the old Wood, you must pluck them off with your hand, and let none grow, but such as grow upon the last years branches, unless the Vine be very strong; in such case you may leave her some of such twigs to multiply her.  
Those that will have their Vines grow without stakes or props, as they do in Languedock and Provence, such you are to cut so short every year, that you leave them but two or three knobs, to the end the Vine may grow big and be strong enough at the foot.  
The third year, the Vine begins to pay and recompense or reward her Master for his labours; then must you cut her a little longer, and leave her more branches, (viz.) two or three in every one, and ever the lowest. Observe also, that if the Vine breed much Wood, than you must cut it when the Moon wayneth; but if it bring forth little Wood or branches, cut it in the first quarter of the Moon, toward the full thereof: all must be cut in December, january, and February.   

2. Another manner of planting the Vine, namely, such as have no roots.  
FIrst of all you must dig and prepare the earth (as we have said) and make it very even: then take a line and lay it along the earth where you will plant, looking toward the South Sun, as we have said. You must have a Pin or Dibble of Iron or of Wood, to make a hole therewith in the earth, one foot and a quarter deep; then put the biggest end of your Vine-plant within the hole of the earth so made; and if you have dung very rotten, put of it one handful in the said hole; then tread it with your foot, and with the Pin or Dibble bore the earth round about the plant to fasten it, that the earth may thereby join close, and be combined with it; then cut it, as we have said, and keep it very neat and clean from weeds all the year.   

3. Another fashion of dressing the Vine, after the manner of Italy, and of Piedmont or Savoy.  
THe greatest part of the Vines of those Countries are planted in the open fields, and grow up upon trees, that are planted there to that end; they plant one or two Vines at one Tree, namely, of the longest Vines they can get, to the end they may grow, and be the sooner upon the top of each tree; and they cut the branches of the Trees off, that be too long, that the Trees may grow round, as much as may be.  
Touching the Vine, it must be cut every year, as we said already, yet they must leave this many more branches than are usually left upon other Vines. And where there are no Trees planted, there cut off some long and big boughs of trees, or get even whole Trees, of the bigness of a man's thigh or thereabouts, leaving only upon them the bigger end of the boughs, and plant them in the earth, to support and prop up the Vine.  
Observe also, that they plant the said Trees or boughs ten or twelve foot distance one from another or thereabouts. You must be careful when they be rotten, to set others in their rooms. Also they may till and sow that Land with Corn, not endamaging the Vine, which is husbanded while they till the said Land.  
And for as much as in Virginia there are found old Vines in the lands, that the Inhabitants do clear for their use, they might spare the said Vines, and plant by them such Trees or boughs, as we said, and tie the Vines upon them, to prop them up, as is said; for they would bring forth much fruit the very first year, which would be as much time gained, and labour spared. Withal, they might also plant of the longest Vines they could find, near to the Trees, to cause them grow upon them, both near the houses and ways, where they would have Trees to grow; and these Vines will bear great store of Grapes, though not to make so good Wine, as is made of the low Vine, yet good enough to be drunk at meat.  
I have seen in the Low Geuanden in Languedock, a Tree bearing a Vine, which hath yielded in one year as many Grapes, as made half a Tun of Wine.   

4. Another form of dressing the Vine, as they do in Vivaretz and in Awergne.  
THey plant it as we have said, and they cut it a little longer than they do in Languedock; after that, they plant stakes of wood, of five or six foot long, and bind three or four of them together by their upper ends, in form of a round Tent; this they do thus, because the Vine there is stronger than in other places of France, and they tie the Vine upon them. But in winter, when they will cut the Vine, and husband it, they take away the stakes: and towards the end of March, they set them up again, as they do in France, where they stick but one stake upright at one Vine, whereto they bind it.   

5. Another way to dress the Vine, after the manner of the Country of Seuenes.  
THere they plant the Vine as followeth. First, having prepared the soil, they make ditches, as we have told you before; then plant they the Vine two foot, one from the other: and the first year they cut it very short, leaving but three knobs or knots out of the earth. The second year they cut it at the first quarter of the Moon, and leave to every one but one branch, as long as they can leave it, and set a stake at every one of the Vines. Two years after, they provide them certain wooden forks, of the bigness of a man's leg, and wooden poles as big as his arm, also smaller poles: then they stick the forks in the earth, from six to six foot distance, all along the ditch where the Vine is planted, and as much in height, or less if they think it fit, and so they do alike in each ditch: then they lay the bigger poles from one fork to another, tying them together with Osier or Willow; and then they tie the lesser poles, being six or seven foot length, athwart over the bigger poles, binding them together with Osier, in distance one from another of one foot and a half, much in the form of the nets that men lay to take Dear to transport from one Park into another.  
They cut the Vine the second year, as long as they can leave it, and they leave it but one branch, to wit, the strongest, to the end the Vine may mount up the sooner upon the said frame of Poles, which we now described, and they bind it thereupon. Now when the Vine is upon it, which is the year following, then must you leave more branches to the said Vine, when you cut it, according as you shall see that her stock is strong and able enough to feed her. And you must leave in every branch, five or six knots or eyes, and every year bind up the ends of all the new branches which are left uncut; upon the pole, frame with Osier, or with green Rushes, or what you can get. They plant such Vines upon the arable Lands about houses, and upon or over the high ways, terming them Treillies or plaited high Vines, which they plant as followeth. First, they dig a ditch in the place, where they mean to set the Vine, in that sort we described afore: And they plant the Vine within the ditch, as also we have showed: then provide they wooden forks, and bigger and smaller poles, as is afore set down.  
Such forks as are set in the ditch, must be but two or three foot high: plant a row of them, six or seven foot from the said ditch or thereabouts, right against the South, and lay on them great and small poles, and tie them as aforesaid.  
Such Vines as are planted over the high ways too, and near houses, there the forks must be longer, to wit, seven or eight foot high, and the poles so much the stronger, to be able to bear the burden of the Vines, and having a respect to the breadth of the said ways. Carts and horsemen pass under them in those countries, without hurt to the Vines, or molestation to the passengers. Such Vines, are to be planted, at both the sides of such ways, and tied up and dressed as is said.   

6. How to husband the Vine, and in what season of the year.  
THe Vine must be husbanded three times a year, to wit, in March for the first time, the second time in May, the third in August. In March you are to dig it deep enough, (viz.) three quarters of a foot depth or thereabouts; and at the other times half a foot deep or thereupon: And in ploughing it, you must have care to pluck off the ends that grow upon the old wood of the said Vines, for they spoil the Vine.   

7. How you are to choose the Vine-plants, for to plant of the best.  
WHen the Grapes be ripe, then consider what plants be best, and which bear most branches. Then mark the same plants so, as you may know them again in Winter, to transplant of them elsewhere. And also if there be any Vines that thrive not well, pluck them up, and set in their room some of those fruitful ones: and if there be any Vine which hath a branch long enough, cut it not from the Vine, but lay it in the earth a foot and a half deep, or thereabouts, leaving out of the earth the small end thereof, with three or four knots upon it, and cut off the rest. It will bring forth fruit the same year. But you must lay in the earth so but one branch of a Vine in one year, for fear you spoil the Vine by too much sucking it. You are to cut the same branch from the old Vine, the next year after that, to the end it draw not the sap and juice away too much from the old one; and by that time the said branch will have taken root enough, able to feed itself. And thus you may store and furnish your Vineyard in a small time with very good plants.   

8. How to make Wine, and how to know when the Grapes are fully ripe.  
WHen you shall see the Grapes very black, and that there are no grayish grains among them, and that the stalk of the branch is become radish, and the white Grapes draw to be of a yellowish colour, and the grains tender; these be tokens that they are ripe, which thing you shall yet better perceive in tasting them; If they be sweet in taste, and the liquor be gluish between your fingers, then is it time to gather them. Yet in every place they cannot ripen alike, so well as in some, though it be under the same Climate.  
In low places, and moist wet grounds, they are never so good, nor so soon ripe, as they are in the dry grounds, and the hilly or sides of hills, and as in the stony and gravely grounds; and that is the cause, why they are not to be gathered so soon in moist grounds.  
Note also, when you gather your Grapes, that you may have the Wine to be good and fit to keep long; do it in dry weather, not in rainy, for that spoils the Wine, and takes away his strength, and hurteth the Vine.  
When you gather your Grapes, choose the ripest, and carry them home; but aforehand provide a Vat, or such a Tub as Brewers use in Brewing. And such as have no great store of Grapes, 〈…〉 use lesser vessels, as barrels or half Hogsheads, to let the Wine purge itself in. The Grapes must be trodden in the vessel, with bare legs and feet; first of all in a lesser vessel or tub, and then after that, remove the trodden Grapes, into a bigger Vat, by degrees as they are trodden, husk and all together: And you may fill the Vat or Tub, within half a foot of the brim thereof. Such vessels must stand upon the one end, upon their bottom, but all open upward: they must be well bound; for otherwise the force of the new Wine will break them all in pieces.  
Whosoever will have his Wine all Claret, let him gather all his Grapes all at once, the white and the black, and put them all together in the vessel, and let them work together.  
Before you put them into the Vat or Tub, make a little bundle of short Vine-branches; then make a hole in the low end of the Vat or Tub in the forepart, to draw the Wine out, when it is purged: put the said bundle of Vine-branches within the said vessel, just before the tap-hole, and lay a clean stone or Brick upon it, to keep it from heaving up with the Wine; this will hinder, when you draw the Wine, that the skins or husks of the Grapes come not out at the tap-hole with it. You must let the Wine work, and purge itself, five or six days, or more, if you will have it look very red. After that, draw it below, and put it in Barrels or Hogsheads. By this time, you having gathered your greener Grapes, after you have trodden the same, as we have said, put them into the Vat or Tub, with the husks or skins of the former pressed Grapes, out of which you have drawn the Wine, and mingle them well together, either with the foot or with a staff, and let the Wine work together as before, and it will be a mean small Wine for the household: After, when it hath purged itself seven or eight days, draw it out and barrel it. Beware you stop not the large upper hole of the vessel, until the Wine hath lost and spent all his great heat.  
There are some, who after this, press the husks in the press, drawing out all that can come thereout, putting that liquor into a Barrel by itself. Others go further, and put water to the husks and latter Wine, at diverse times, not all at once, but by little and little, putting one Tenth part of water, in proportion of the quantity of the Wine, which they have so drawn, and they let it work and purge itself in the Vat, or lesser vessel, five or six days, and then draw it and barrel it: This will be pretty small Wine for the servants or household. And whosoever will make Wine merely white, let him gather all his white Grapes by themselves, and let the Wine work and purge itself in the Vat but two or three days; for if you let it stand longer, the colour will be yellow; this is the manner practised in Languedoc, Provence, and elsewhere: but in Poictou and in some other parts of France, they do otherwise, that it may be the whiter.  
After it hath been trodden, draw out the Wine, and put it in Barrels, and there let it purge, without his husks or skins. You must be careful to fill up the Barrels every day, according as it diminisheth with working, otherwise the Lees and other corruptions will go down into the Barrels, and when hot weather cometh, will spoil the Wine. You may do so with the Claret, when you will not have it too red, but clear, and namely in hot countries.   

9 Observations touching the wild Vine, that groweth in Virginia, and how to make Wine of the same.  
I Have been informed by such as have been in Virginia, that there grow infinite number of wild Vines there, and of several sorts; some climb up to the top of trees in the woods, and they bring forth great quantities of small black Grapes, which are the plainer to be seen, when the leaves are fall'n off from the trees. Another sort of Grapes there is, that run upon the ground, almost as big as a Damson, very sweet, and maketh deep red Wine, which they call a Fox-Grape. A third sort there is, which is a white Grape, but that is but rare, which are all devoured by the birds and beasts.  
Now if such men as dwell there, would take the pains to gather some of them, when they be ripe, and tread them as aforesaid, and make the Wine work with water, putting it in Fats or Tubs, as we said, it would purge itself as well as good Wine doth; and if the Grapes be too hard, they may boil them with some water; and if the Cauldron be too little to boil them all together, boil them one after another, till all be boiled, and then put them all into the Vat or Tub, to wit, the Wine, the water, and the husks of the Grapes, and then let them work thus together five or six days, or else so long till you think it fit and good to be drunk. After that, you may draw it, and barrel it, as we have said, and use it when you need. I have oftentimes seen such Wine made reasonable good for the household. And by this means every man may presently have Wine in Virginia to drink.   

1. How to plant the Fig tree, and the nature of the same.  
THe Fig tree is a tree that groweth speedily, and the second year beginneth to bear fruit, and is of that nature, that during a month or five weeks, in that season when Grapes are ripe and good to eat, you may gather ripe Figs of it every day. The Fig tree herein is like the Vine, that it may be planted without roots, of a branch, albeit such as have roots, bring forth sooner: And being either plucked up, or cut off a long time before, you must put them in water (as we have said of the Vine) and plant them in the like manner. And in hot Countries, they plant them ordinarily in the open Vineyards, for it loves naturally to grow with the Vine, as having affinity together; for their fruit grow, and are ripe at one time. When you plant the Fig tree without root, you must lay the branch within the earth, as we have said of the Vine.   

2. How to plant Peach trees, and the nature of them.  
THe Peach trees of every kind, are trees of no long continuance, and ordinarily are planted in the open Vineyards, as the Fig trees, without hurt to them; and their fruit ripens in one season.  
Many being in their Vineyards, when they gather and eat a Peach that pleases them well in their taste, do forthwith plant the stone thereof in the earth, in that place where they will have a Peach tree grow the next year, and there the same groweth without any further labour. The like may be done of all sorts of Peaches, yea even with Apricocks: and those that will not plant them in their Vineyard, may plant them first in their Garden, and transplant them afterwards where they please, and they will bring forth the like fruit, as the tree of which the stone was.  
There are places in France, as at Paris, where they graft them upon Plum-trees, or Almond-trees, which are more lasting, though not fit to be planted in Vineyards, because the Plum-tree breeds too many roots and suckers, which spoil the Vine.   

3. How to plant Quince-trees.  
AS for Quince-trees, they may be planted of a bough thereof, without root, as Fig trees: though it is better to plant them with roots, when such may be had. They like well to be planted in moist ground, yet they will grow every where. Also you may graft them, one upon the other, thereby to get the better fruit. Likewise you may sow his seed, to wit, when his fruit is ripe, then are you to take out the kernels, and sow them, as you sow the seeds, and kernels of Apples and Pears, which commonly is done in February and March.   

4. Of the Olive tree, and the nature thereof.  
THe Olive tree also is a great lover of the Vine, commonly they plant it in March, April and May, ordinarily they plant no Nurseries of them, because they are a long time in growing.  
There grows at the root of the old trees, sprigs, or suckers, which being grown big, they use to cut them off, together with as great a piece of the stock of the old tree, as is a man's two fists or thereabouts, and this is without hurting the tree, and so they plant the said sprigs or suckers with their adjunct aforesaid, putting that great piece in the earth, which serves it in stead of a root, then must we cut off his head or top upward, as commonly we do to other trees.  
Also you may sow some of his fruit, together with the stone thereof, being very ripe, as about Christ-tide, when they are blackish, and this without drying them. You must husband it at the root, as the Vine, twice in a year, and fatten the earth with good dung, if need require. In many places they sow corn or other things under the Olive trees, without hurt to them.   

5. Of the Pomegranate tree, and of his nature.  
THe Pomegranate tree is ever little, of the bigness and form of a white Thorn: In hot countries they grow near the Highways, and in Woods, especially in stony ground. They make few Nurseries of them, because they cast many sprigs at the foot, whereof so many may be plucked off and planted where they will, and as many as they please.  
Note, that there are some sweet, and some bitter; the bitter are not eaten, but are good for other uses, as namely, for Curriers to give a good gloss to their Spanish Leather Skins. Being once sown or planted in any place, there they grow of themselves, and he that will sow of them, when he eats of the best of them, he may put the seed, or kernel of them presently in the earth.   

6. The manner of sowing the seeds or kernels of sundry kinds of fruits, for to have trees of them: and how to preserve the seeds, until the time be fit to sow them.  
FOr the seed of the Vine, it may be well sown, and it will grow as other seeds do: but because it is a long time a growing, they use to sow very little of it. Yet whosoever would be curious to try conclusions, may sow of it, as they sow other seeds. For to draw out and get the seeds of them, the Grapes being very ripe, you must gather▪ them and wring them between your hands, and so take out the seeds or kernels, and then sow the same presently, or else dry them in the shadow, not in the Sun, and keep them till February or March next coming, and then soak them in fresh water two or three days before you sow them.  
7. For the seed of the Fig tree, draw it also out of his Figs, being fresh, and sow it, as that of the Mulberry tree, whereof we have treated already.  
8. The stones of Peaches and Apricocks, are the seed of those trees, which thrive best, when they are planted as soon as they are out of their fruit, without drying them. And those that will keep them till March next, must dry them in the shadow, not in the Sun. And before you plant them, put them four or five days in water or wine, than put them four inches deep in the earth. Otherwise, without drying them, you may keep them in an earthen pot, with earth in it.  
9 The Cherry stone is to be managed as the Peach and Apricot, as we said before. The fruit that comes of them, will prove as the Cherries were, howbeit, not altogether so big as the former were.  
10. Walnuts must also be planted green, and fresh, and with all the upper Rind, and take heed Rats and Mice come not at them to eat them, for they are very liquorish of them.  
Also, you may keep them dry, as we said heretofore of other things, but they profit not so well. The Tree that shall come thereof, being of the said nature, will produce the like fruit.  
11. The Almond is to be husbanded and planted as the Peach and Apricot.  
12. The stones of Plums are to be used and planted as the Almond; but the Tree that shall come of them, will not be so good, and that is the reason why they must be grafted.  
13. The Chest-nut is to be planted green and fresh, else it will never prosper, if you let it be dried. You must put them in the earth, three or four inches deep; And to keep them, you must put them in fresh water three or four days, then wipe off the water from them, and keep them in a pot with earth in it, until the Spring come, to plant them. The Trees that will come of them, will not bring forth so good fruit, as the Chest-nut was, and therefore the best way is to graft them.  
14. The seeds of Lemons and Oranges, ordinarily are sown, as soon as they are taken out of their fruit. They prepare the soil towards the South, well digged and dunged, and plant them the small end upward, two inches deep in the earth. Also they graft them ordinarily, to get the better and goodlier fruit of them.  
15. For the seeds of Apples and Pears, the fruit being very ripe, you are then to take out the seed, and dry them in the shade, and you may keep them till February following or March, to sow them. Then must you have prepared for them good ground, and you must make in it small rays or furrows, of two or three inches in breadth, and of like depth, each furrow being three quarters of a foot distant one from the other, and you must sow the seed within the said furrows, covering them with earth. It is very good to sow them, as soon as they are taken out of their fruit; for they come forth of the earth the sooner: And it is needful to graft them, because the fruit that proceedeth of them otherwise, is not so good. It is also good, that all the seeds and stones here beforenamed, be planted and sown at the first quarter of the Moon.   

16. How to dry Grapes, to keep them.  
WHen the Grapes be very ripe, then are you to choose them in the Vineyard, of the biggest and best, and namely, white ones. After you have chosen and gathered as many as you will have, you must burn a certain quantity of Vine-cuttings, not mingling therewith any other kind of Wood, and then gather the ashes thereof (but the best is, that they be all of white Vine branches:) after that, put fair water and those ashes in a Cawldron upon the fire, and seethe them together, till you have made a clear liquor; then taking away all the ashes, put the liquor into a clean Cawldron again, and set it over the fire, and being ready to seethe, then must ye take rods of wood, such as Chandler's use, whereupon they set and make their Candles; upon which rods you must tie the bunches all along, one bunch of Grapes on one side the Rod, and on the other side another bunch of Grapes; tie them with thread by their stalks to hang them on; which done, then dive them in the liquor, as the Chandler puts his Candles in the molten Tallow, and that sundry times, as four or five times: thus, having dived one rod of Raisins, hang it by to dry; then take another, and wet it in the same manner, and set it by, and do so of all the rest: then hang them up in the Sun, or else spread them upon Hurdles or Lattices of Rods, or such like, until they be almost dry: then barrel them, pressing them very flat in the said Barrels. Others dry them, without this steeping them, even as they come from the Vine.   

17. How to dry Figs.  
FIrst, gather them very ripe; And having made ready Hurdles or Lattices of Reeds, or of Osier, joined together, as Osier Lattices use to be, with lights or cliffs between Osier and Osier, to the end that the air passing thorough the rifts, & void spaces of them, may help the Sun to dry them up, when they are spread upon the said Lattice Tables; and take heed, that neither the rain, nor the due fall upon them. Also you may dry them in this manner: First take a big Reed or Cane, of two or three foot long, and bore little holes all the length of it, thorough which holes you are to put little sticks very sharp, of two foot long; then thread the figs upon the little sticks, till they be very full of them; then hang the Cane in the Sun; and when they be dry, barrel them, pressing them very hard in the Barrel, as we said of Grapes.   

18. How to dry Peaches of all kinds, and Apricocks.  
WHen they be very ripe, than you must pair off the upper skin, and cleave them into four quarters, and dry them as Figs, and barrel them, to keep them for winter.  
The manner how to dress them, after they are dry, for to eat them, is this; You must provide a clean earthen pot, and after you have washed your Peaches in fair water, than put them into the pot, and put in as much Wine as will cover the Peaches, and then seethe them half a quarter of an hour. Also they may be made ready another way without boiling them, by putting them in wine, and soaking them three or four days; and this way they are better. Also you may put in some cinnamon in powder; in this manner you may keep them one month within the said pot. Using them every morning, they provoke an appetite or good stomach, and are very wholesome.   

19 How to hinder wild beasts, from eating the fruits in the night.  
YOu must make fires in sundry places, and namely, in every such way as leadeth to the wood, and that only in the night, and no wild beast will come near them. And specially do this about the Vineyards, from the time the Grapes begin to be ripe, until they be wholly ripe.   

20. Advice for those in Virginia, touching the place for to plant Vines in.  
FOrasmuch as every plat of ground is not fit for the Vine, it were good and convenient, that every Town and Village, whereabouts is, or shall be found any good or proper ground for that purpose, that there the inhabitants should plant Vines one near another: and such men as have interest or right to such grounds, may change them for some other, in another quarter of the Country, according to the quantity, that every one may be able to apply himself unto. For the Vines being thus joined together, will not cost more to keep then one plat; Neither shall the wild beasts eat any the more; and so one may help another, and learn one of another like good neighbours.   

Conclusion.  
I Have many more useful things to impart, which for want of leisure I must leave unpublished till some other time. Wherefore I will now only heartily recommend these my approved experiments (which I have sent you) to the care and diligent practice, of you the Colonies of Virginia and the Summer Lands. If you cheerfully apply yourselves to these instructions, I shall be encouraged to do more and better service for you hereafter; and you for your pains, I dare assure it, shall be richly recompensed with ample profit. Especially, and above all others, if you constantly pursue those two most invaluable commodities of Silks and Wines, which you may with ease and little cost bring speedily to perfection. For Nature (which doth nought in vain) hath every where for this purpose, most luxuriously stored Virginia ready to your hands, with excellent Mulberry Trees, and Vines of diverse sorts, which none, though never so malicious, or can, or dare deny. Since then that Nature herself, as proud of this her sumptuous work, beckons you to her, and points you round about, with her bounteous hand, to behold here in every place, her brave Mulberries, and her merry Vines, listen no more to me then, but harken to her now, what she says and truly counsels you, most part from herself, and some part of what she hath heard from others.  
And thus she speaks unto you:  
Friends of my best beloved Nation, view me well, and tell me if you are not come into another Land of promise, into another Paradise? to pass by my most fertile grain (so much of all commended) the nourishing Maiz, and many other things; behold now only, my two great Treasures, my richest Plants, my Mulberries and my Vines, which I have purposely provided ready for you, and that abundantly, without your care, without your cost or charge. Believe me, I make all my least and commonest works, for some good purpose ever, much more these than that are so precious. Regard them well. I hear you all confess now, they are rich and beautiful: How haps it then, that I and they are slighted so much by you? and that which worst is, all for a smoky Witch? I have heard some say, that dice are made of Conjurer's bones, and cards of Witches skins, whereby those that handle them, though they lose still, and are undone by them, yet they can never leave them. Sure there is some such sorcery in this weed; it was first sown (it seems) by some Indian Enchanters hand, with spells and Magic verses, or otherwise you could never so much dote on it. For all the fruit of this, it is but smoke, which vanishes, and likely will not always last. But these my two other bounties I have given you, for Silks and Wines, be they never so plentiful, yet shall they be always durable, and generally staple, to your excessive gain. Do not then still Ixion-like, embrace a cloud, for juno, and smoke, for substance. Let but the fruitful soil and happy Clime here (the chief nurse of these and all other plants) persuade you for me.  
All Authors of Agriculture will tell you, that neither Arable, Pasture, Meadows, nor any other grounds, are so proper to plant the Vine in, as those cleared grounds are, wherein not shrubs, but tall Trees grew. And what Country in the world so full as this, of tall and goodly Timber trees? so as when you clear your grounds, you easily may remove your Vines into them, and the removing gives them also a perfection. Likewise may you leave your Mulberries still growing, even where you plant your Vines: for such love and affinity there is between these two, (as good things always go together) That the soil and Clime which fits the one, fits the other; and what the one loves or hates, the other doth the like. Were not this known to all, yet the abundance of them both, so naturally growing here together, would, without other experience, sufficiently confirm it. Again, were not this Country and Climate here most proper which I have chosen for them, you should not have seen them, be sure of it, so freely and willingly flourish every where as they do. For this purpose compare Virginia now, with other Countries, that are seated in the same degree of latitude that she is, mark their Commodities, and you shall see, that she is as well a kin to them, in them, as in the same degree. Your great Mathematician Hariot, who lived sometime in Virginia, 
Virginia in the same degree of latitude that Persia is.  and who with many praises (justly due unto her) wrote of her, and her Commodities, saith in that his book, that she is seated in the same latitude that Persia is: And they that have traveled Persia, and write of it, will tell you 
⋆ Paulus Venetus, 1. Book, 19 Chap.  how it abounds with all good grain and fruits, and how it exceeds in Silks, and Wines, as this her Cousin-german, in the same degree, Virginia, doth the like, with Mulberries, Vines, Maize, and other grain.  
Another, an eye witness also of Persia, saith, that 
⋆ Ludovicus Romanus, 3. Book, 19 Chap.  Chorazain, a Province of that Country, is so fruitful of all things, that a dearth is never known there: and that you may see in one only City, called, Eri, such store of Silk, as in one day you may buy as much as will load 3000. Camels. And who knows not, that the abundance of Silk, raised from the propriety of that soil & Climate, is the unspeakable rich Staple Commodity of that great Empire? These Silks are the sinews of the Persian State, by which treasure, the Sophy is enabled still as he doth, to wage war with the Turk, to the great good of all Christendom. I need not tell you, by the way, how hopeful a Trade this is to the English East India Company, if it be not (as pity it were) sinisterly hindered.  
For by this means great store of Clothes may be vented there, multitudes of poor set on work, 
See Master Mu●nes, and Master M●sseldens books of this  and England enriched, and made in time the Magazine for silks. And by this fetching of silk still from the fountain head in Persia, the Turk shall be deprived of this great Tribute, weakened in his treasure and impoverished; and the Persian, by this Trade, be the more enriched and strengthened against the Turk, to the common good of Christendom. And I hope all good men will wish this Trade to prosper and proceed still with the Persian, far rather then with the Turk. So much the more, for that all Authors and Travellers report, 
* Paulus Venetus, Mercator.  The Persian to be courteous, gentle, liberal, kind to Christians, and a lover of learning and of Arts, especially Astrology, Physic, and Poetry; so as when there shall be an Ambassador once settled with the Sophy, there can be expected nothing but all good usage, with a greater gain. The Turk chose is rude, barbarous, cruel, covetous, perfidious, a Christian and a Learning-hater. The love of Persia, so like Virginia in many things, hath made me stay longer in her then otherwise I would: but now I will take my leave of her, and her rich store of Silks, and lead you thence, to a greater and a more opulent Empire yet, to China, 
⋆ Virginia in the same degree of latitude that China is.  which also is seated in the same degree of latitude that our Virginia is: and here you may see how likewise they two are a kin in sundry natural Commodities, which by reciting and comparing of them, you shall easily perceive. China is stored with Woods of Mulberries to feed Silk worms with, and such abundance of Silks they make, 
⋆ Joh. Bar●ius, Decad Asian. Mercator.  that at the City of Nimpo, which others call Liampo, the Portugals have observed 16●000. pound weight of Silk, carried out in Ships in three months space.  
Into Cambula, the chief City of Tartary, there come every day from China, about a thousand Wagons laden with Silk, as 
⋆ Paul Venetus. Mercator. Bertius Geograph.  Authors of no small credit, and one that was there, reports. China also is full of navigable Rivers, and is fertile of all grain, Maiz, Rice, and others, of which it hath three or four Harvests in a year; it is stored with Fish and Fowl, it hath Mines of Silver, Brass, Iron, and other metals, Quicksilver, Niter, Allom, and precious Stones, Pearl, Musk, Cotton, Rhubarb, China roots, store of Flax, and rich Furs. 
⋆ Gonsales Mendosa history Of China. 1. Book, 3. Chap.  They lose not a span of ground, but all places are employed to their proper use: the dryer, they sow with Wheat and Barley; the moist, with Rice and Sugar canes: Hills and Mountains abound with Pinetrees, and Chessenuts, between which they plant Maiz, and sow Panic, and all kind of pulse: in other proper places, are Mulberry Groves, fair Gardens, Orchards, and Flax grounds, no waste Land, but all put to some good use or other. It is not my purpose to speak of the sharp wit, or of the excellent Art and industry of the Chinese, wherein they equal, if not exceed all Nations of the world again: that is beside our matter now: but as there is a consanguinity betwixt China and Virginia, in the same degree of latitude; so I will only compare and show the like affinity and agreement betwixt the native Commodities of the one and the other Climate: China hath store of Maiz for food, and Mulberry trees for Silk, and what Maiz, and Mulberries Virginia hath, is so well known to all, as of that I need say no more. China yields store of Fish and Fowl, Virginia hath the like; and for Fish, no where more plenty, nor so large as there: witness your many Sails, that yearly come out of England hither, for this purpose, so as at this time, it makes a great trade, and will yearly more and more increase still, especially after your Saltworks (that are now setting up) are finished; and for the Flax of China, you have naturally growing in Virginia, Silke-grasse, Flax, and Hemp, of diverse sorts, and of approved goodness, and which culture will yet much more perfect. You have likewise, as China, known Mines of Iron, and of Copper, and of other richer Mines also you have more than hopes: China hath Pearl, and some of the Indians wear it in Virginia: as it hath Musk, so hath Virginia, the beasts called by some, Muscassus, which have good Musk, and by all likelihood are of the same kind. The rich Furs reported of China, are exceeded by Virginia, in store of Bears, Otters, martin's, and black Fox skins, besides many others, of which the French and Dutch have made hard by you here, a great trade, these many years. As for the other natural commodities, mentioned, that China hath, and are not yet here known to the now Colony, as Rhubarb, China roots, 
⋆ Mercator in his description of Virginia saith, that it hath Allom, Niter, Pitch, Tar, Turpentine, Iron, Copper, Silk, Flax, Hemp, Tobacco, and precious Stones.  Niter, Allom, Quicksilver, etc. You may probably at least presume, considering that Virginia consorts with China in so many known things, as in the same height, the like happy tempered Clime, the like fruitful soil, the like many navigable rivers, the many like native known Commodities, already named: you may probably presume (I say) that time & your industry, in diligent searching (which for these reasons you ought the rather to quicken) will discover also hereafter many of these, if not all unto you. And as for the other commodities that Virginia hath not at all as yet, as Rice and Sugars, likewise none may doubt, seeing the soil and Clime here are endued with no contrarieties, extremities, or distemperatures to hinder the growth of them, but hath all conveniences alike fitting for these purposes; there is no doubt then (I say) but that when they are once transported hither from other places, and planted here, but that it must needs prove capable of them, being so naturally fitted already for them. Neither yet is it to be thought, that any cultivated Country in the world, though never so fruitful, had all things at first there naturally growing in it, as now it hath, but that many of them were brought afterwards thither from other places. And so in like sort, the Spaniards have transported out of Europe and the East-Indies, diverse plants of fruits, drugs and dies, and many rich commodities, which they have prosperously planted in the West Indies, to their great gain, as may easily be shown. And you, if you consider your store of your plain, moist, fat, and fruitful grounds, and your goodly rivers by them, for help of water, you cannot doubt but that you are most fitly provided for the entertaining and bringing up of Rice and Sugar Canes. You have already made successful trial of other grounds, which prove most proper for Cotten wool plants and Indigo, for the ordering of which, and of many other more profitable commodities, you shall shortly (as I hear) have directions printed and sent unto you. Now for the three or four Harvests which China hath yearly, so as dearth is never heard of there: It is known likewise and written of 
⋆ Mercator, in his des 〈…〉tion of Virginia.  Virginia, that at Roanoak they reap three Harvests in five months space: they sow in May, and in june, and in july; and reap again, in july, August, and September. And as for that part of Virginia which is now planted, there is 
⋆ Mr. Perce, the Cape Merchant, under his hand-writing.  one of the most ancient and expert Planters now in England, that credibly avers, that they may, and do begin to sow of our Country grain in September, and so after continue still their seed season for wheat very well until the middle of February following, and about the end of june, they begin to reap the first Harvest of Wheat and Barley, which is very good, and in the other months after, that which was later swoon. Whereupon is to be inferred, that Virginia having store of Ploughs and good Husbandmen, need not only never fear dearth and scarcity, but may by the many seeding and many Harvests, be made a Country as plentiful of all grain, as China, or any other whatsoever in the world. Besides, some known commodities you have, which China wants: to omit others, that which is called Terra-Lemnia, formerly a peculiar treasure of the great Turks only, 
⋆ Mendosa, History of China.  and Wine of Grapes, whereof they have none: for all theirs are made either of the Palm three called Cocos, or of the Palm that bears Dates, which being exceeding good, and made with diverse mixtures, after diverse fashions, this perhaps makes them less care either to plant or to dress the Vine. But to bid China farewell now, and the multiplicity of her commodities and her affinities with Virginia, I will return again to speak particularly of our Mulberries and Silk: and for this purpose I will now carry you into France and Italy, only to view the rich and mighty profits that they make of them: Notwithstanding their Mulberry trees (which are esteemed always to countervail the half of all the whole charges of this business) are not produced by the earth of her own accord, with my help only, as here, but by labour and industry and expense. 
⋆ Agricoltura Giornata. 16.  Augustino Gallo an excellent Author of Agriculture saith, that but a few years since (finding the sweet by keeping Silkworms) in the Territory of Bresci●▪ they did yearly sow Millions of Mulberry trees, which after four years' growth, the best and fairest of them were removed, to be planted by high way sides or other places, where they thought fitting, and that both noble and ignoble did take such a pleasure in keeping great store of Silkworms, so as gain quickening their industry, they did more and more amongst all sorts yearly augment this business. 
⋆ Ol. Serres. Agricultur. Book 5. cap. 15.  It is not above twenty years, since these Silkworms were generally set up in France, Henry the Great, with great wisdom appointing Commissioners for that purpose.  

⋆ Le Tellier memoirs & instructions, etc. pag. 3.  Le Tellier, in his book of the Silke-arte, saith, that the invention and first knowledge of Silk, came from the East Indies into Europe above a thousand years since, & was brought into Italy, not above two or three hundred years ago: for before that time, this fabric and work was more rare and strange there, than it was about twenty years since, in France, afore which time (though not many years since) the people of Provence, Languedock and Dauphine (the neighbour Provinces to Italy) applying themselves to this Silkworm, found the progress so easy and profitable, insomuch as the sole revenue of Silk, brings more money (saith he) at this present to those Provinces, than all their Corn, Oil, & Woad, together, which notwithstanding are there in very great abundance; 
⋆ Ol. Serres Agricultur. Book 5. cap. 15.  Another saith, that France must save and gain by the progress of this Silk fabric, above four millions a year; Italy then incomparably more: and yet France for the getting of this great gain, makes of the Silkworms breed, of one ounce of Seed, in the most places, but five or six pound of Silk, every pound worth two & three French Crowns and somewhat more. Yet in the better parts of France, as in Languedock, and Provence, they make seven or eight pounds of Sike, of an ounce of Sike-seede. 
⋆ Agostino Gallo 6. Giornata of his Agriculture.  But in Italy, namely, in Brescia, they make of one ounce of Spanish Silke-seede, eight, nine and ten pound of Silk, and the Silkworms spinning of this ounce of Silke-seede, cate but about two hundred and fifty pound weight (after the 
⋆ The Brescia pound weight is twelve ounces weight of Genoa and eight ounces weight of the great ounce of Venice.  pound weight of Brescia) of Mulberry leaves to make the said quantity of Silk; And of an ounce of Portuguese Silke-seed, they make there in Brescia eleven and twelve pound weight of Silk, and the Worms of that seed (as being of a bigger breed) eat about three hundred Brescia weight of Mulberry leaves; and no doubt but in other places of Italy, which are yet more proper for this business, they make of the like proportion of seed, a greater quantity of Silk than this.  
Such difference there is betwixt Climate and Climate, in the natural propriety of it, to the great increasing and bettering of this work. Considering therefore the great charge and labour, that Italy and France is at, in planting of Mulberry trees, and for that purpose sowing Mulberry seeds, and expecting six or seven year after (for so long it is ere they grow to perfection) afore they can make good profit of them, and considering beside, that their Climate is nothing so proper for this Silke-commodity, as Virginia is, and yet for all that, they make their greatest gain of it:  
It cannot be doubted then, but Virginia having infinite store of the best sort of Mulberry trees, ready grown up to your hands, without your charge or labour, and having the Climate (as is experimented) more naturally proper for this work, and the food for the Silkworms better, whereby they become more strong, to pass their natural and other casual sicknesses with less danger, and so are generally more healthful, and also are bigger bodied, and make larger Silke-bottomes, and finish their work in a shorter time than other do otherwhere; having all these preeminences, it cannot be doubted (I say) by any reasonable man, but that Virginia is every way better fitted, to yield incomparably a far richer profit by the Silkeworkes to you, than France or Italy can do to them.  
And if in France, their profit be thus rated by them, which account always, that the fourth part of the price of the Silk defrays all the charges, there remaining three parts of clear gain to the Owner, and in Italy, a sixth part will discharge all expenses, making five parts of clear gain, where they reckon nevertheless, that the price of the Mulberry leaf (as I will show by and by) countervails the full half of the whole charge of the Silkeworke; you may then certainly assure yourselves, that in Virginia, where you have what store of Mulberry leaves you will for nothing, with all the other advantages afore mentioned, that the tenth or twelfth part of your Silk you make there, must needs clear all your charges, and make nine; ten or eleven parts clear gain to yourselves. Your chief charge will be, for the gathering of the leaves to feed the Worms. A man and a boy will feed the Worms, coming of six ounces of seeds, till they be passed their fourth sickness, and within a fortnight of spinning. But for the last fortnight, because the Worms must be then carefully and often fed (that being the chief time, wherein they conceive, and store up the matter for the Silk, which they after vomit out and spin) than you must add three or four helpers, to the other two aforesaid.  
For the feeding, and shifting of the Worms, and other employments, women, children, and impotent persons may be used. And as one skilful governor of the Silkworms may employ hundreds under him, so he may in six week's space, easily teach them the chiefest points of this art, if they be capable, and will addict themselves to the learning of it. 
⋆ Ol. Serres ibid.  The Governor of the Silkworms in France, hath two, three and four crowns a month, besides his diet: and his charge continues, from the first hatching of the Worms, to the finishing and winding of the Silk. 
⋆ Le Tellier in his Book of the Silke-art.  Moreover, you must not think it to be absolutely necessary, to be so superstitious in curiously following all the book rules and written precepts, so as if any of them be omitted, or every thing be not precisely followed, in the hatching, lodging, feeding, and tending of the Silkworms, that then all the business is spoiled and overthrown: for it may notwithstanding profit and succeed, to the contentment of those that keep them. Only let every man do what he can commodiously, to his power and ability, and assure himself, though he keep not all strict rules in every thing, that yet he may make a great gain, notwithstanding still the greater, the more curious he be in observing and practising all the approved experiments, Rules, and precepts hereunto belonging.  
These Rules are chiefly to show the perfection of this Art, and that also a man may learn thereby, that if the Silkworms miscarry or prosper not so well one year, what might be the cause of it, and where the fault lay, and how next year that may be remedied which was amiss afore, without despairing or being discouraged. Besides you must know, that all general Rules ever admit some exceptions, and vary according to some particular circumstances. And therefore to make the Rules the surer for you, the nature of the Climate must be observed, how and in what one Climate differs from another, as also the season of one year, altering from another, in cold, heat, drought, or moisture, the manner of the lodgings, the qualities of the winds, to be let in, and kept out upon occasion fitting, and so according to all the different qualities, to govern this work differently with discretion. As if it be a cold season, to use more artificial heat, for the cherishing the Worms; if it be a very hot season, to let in the cool air and the winds, as much as may be to refresh them, especially when they spin their Silk, for fear of stifling them with too much heat. If it be a moist time (the worst season of all other ever for the Silkworms) to use drying heats and perfumes so much the more, to qualify the moist and the ill season, and to be careful, that the Mulberry leaf be well dried, and kept the longer after it be gathered, afore it be given. But if the season be dry, then consider, that the leaf, after it hath lain and cooled a while, may be given the fresher, and the Mulberry tree roots may be watered in these droughts, to refresh the leaves, as they do sometimes in Spain, especially if it be in a dry and hot ground, which otherwise without these cautions were not so good. Then must you consider also, if the Mulberry three grow in a shady place, or in a sour, foul or wet soil, what inconvenience that food may bring unto the worm, & thereafter either to avoid it wholly, if it be possible, or else to qualify it as well as may be: Nevertheless noting that in a hot and dry year, a man may be more bold to feed with those leaves, that grow in a shady or moist ground, by reason the temper of the season hath the better corrected the ill quality of them. Thus regard with reason always, what kind of ground the leaf grew in, and in what qualified season you gather it in, and consider the kind, and nature of the tree, and the nature and kind of the Silke-seed you use, and according to all particular circumstances, well pondered, so to make your exceptions, and to order every thing with judgement, and discretion thereafter. Time and observation will teach you many experiments, out of which perhaps some more rules of art may be made, as best fitting in some particularities, the Country and Climate of Virginia, which finding, after good trial made, you shall do well to set them down in writing, that in time they may be published also, for the better directing, and profiting of others. And because in Persia (where such infinite store of Silk is made) it is not likely, that they tie themselves to all the strict rule, and niceties, which for the most part are necessary to be observed in many Countries, but do what is fitting otherwise, for that Climate, most proper for this work; (with which Virginia so nearly agrees, and naturally consorts as is aforesaid) for this especial purpose therefore, means are made (I hear) to certify you from the English Factory in Persia, of the art and order that they use, in all particulars, for the Silkeworkes there; which may guide you, happily, to a more compendious and ready way, for the better speeding of this rich business. And yet where all these rules are curiously followed, they make not only Spain, and Italy, but in the worse parts of France, and otherwhere, a far greater gain (so much for so much) by feeding the Silkworms, then by any other commodity whatsoever. Insomuch as some Gentlemen in Italy, which keep no Silkworms themselves (and which are therefore of the worst sort of husbands) yet by letting out their Mulberry trees to others, for the leaf only, make a great part of their revenues, some 500 li. some 1000 li. a year; some more, some less, according to the number, greatness, and goodness of their Mulberry trees. 
⋆ Ol. Serres ibid.  So likewise in Auignon, Dauphiné, Lauguedoc, Provence, and other parts of France, some let out their Mulberry trees to others, from two shillings, to twelve shillings apiece and upwards, accordingly as they are. 
⋆ Augustino Gallo, ibid.  But some other Gentlemen in Italy let out their Mulberry trees, after another manner, namely, they are at the charge only, to give the leaf of their Mulberry trees, to some poor folks, for which they are to find at their cost, the Silke-seed, and are to feed and tend the Worms, till they have made their Silk: which done, they divide the Silk bottoms, by halves between them. Thus you see, what a rich revenue I have provided for you, in Mulberry trees alone, which are half the charge, and yet cost you nothing. And I hope I need not tell you, how it is a matter, no less profitable than easy, for the better advancing this Commodity, to build for this purpose far from your houses (if need be) in the most convenient places, of the best Mulberry woods, some slight Silkworm lodgings, soon set up, and with Stoves in them, after that excellent manner of Sicily, formerly described; which by this Art may correct the ill site and temper, and qualify the Air well, in the cold, moist and shady woods, lest otherwise that might be a hindrance to this work. And here also in these lodgings, you may make good shift (especially for so great a gain) with necessary provisions to lodge yourselves, from the beginning, to the end of your Silke-haruest time, about some six weeks only: where you shall need but one third part of your company, the first four weeks, and two third parts more, the last fortnight only, for the often then and plentiful feeding of the Worms. To invite you to this enterprise, you have abundance of choice Materials, to erect these Silke-lodgings with, which will cost you nothing, but a little labour, to cut out some posts, and to fit them and set them up; or to saw out small quarters, and rafters, and planks, and boards, to fence the sides in stead of walls, and to cover the roof in stead of tiles; all which must be so close laid in all places, one within another, that no rain, wind, nor weather get in at any rifts or crevices to hurt the Worms. Which the better to prevent, the chinks (if any be) may be all stopped, every where about, with some loam or clay. And thus for their better profit, may many Families (especially of the poorer sort) join hands together, for the speedy setting up of these Silke-lodgings, and for the gathering and sorting of the Mulberry leaves, and for the helping and teaching one another to feed and order the Worms, and so work, and live together, all the Silke-haruest time, and at the end of it, to divide all the Silk bottoms made amongst them, by number, weight, or measure, after the number and proportion of every Family, and person; as to some one, some two, some three, some four shares, and so more or less ratably, and according to their first agreements set down in writing. Here also in the mean time, for their better sustenance, may they commodiously keep near about them, their Poultry, Swine, and Milch cattle, for milk and butter, and spare their own pastures near home the while.  
Thus you see, what rich benefits I afford you, for your small labour only. And if I should give you all things perfect, without your pains at all, I should breed but mine own contempt, and nurse your sloth. For these my great commodities, and all other then, I ask some little attendance of you (justly due unto me) to bring them to perfection. Give me but two handmaids only, Art and Industry, to wait upon me, and I will most honourably and richly then endow both them and you. And for this purpose now (not to speak of Husbandry at large) I will chiefly commend the skill of Gardening, to you all and every one. Let none be ignorant to sow, to set, to plant, to graft, to manure, to dress, and order all plants, according to their kinds, and that in proper grounds and seasons fitting them. This is part of that skill, which Emperors, Kings, and Senators of Rome have both writ of and practised. Let no man then disdain it, but get and peruse their and such like Books of this, and other Husbandry. I know not whether the profit of it, or delight be greater. Wherefore all and every one in Virginia, men and women too, from the highest to the lowest in some proportion, must know and practise it, if they mind to thrive, prosper, and have true delight. By Gardening alone (especially in these rich grounds and temperate Clime) may all have delicate variety, and good sufficiency of sustenance, were there nothing else, for Summer and for Winter. Besides the Cassavi, for good bread, I might particularise the wholesome and great variety of many other nourishing roots and herbs, and of other Garden and Orchard fruits, in these hotter Countries especially, most excellent for food. And this was the chief sustenance of the wise and sober Ancients in the golden times. Panis and Holus (
⋆ Julius Scaliger.  by a most learned and judicious Writer) are derived from two Greek words, that signify all, and the whole: for the Ancients esteemed (saith he) that if they had but bread and Garden fruit, they had all and the whole, and every whit that was necessary for their food. Neither is this all for as you may be fed, so may you be clothed also, by this skill alone, as by the expert planting of Cotten, Silk grass, Flax, Hemp, and some such other like. Besides, the Art of planting well followed, as it can, so will it bring you to the greatest wealth above all things whatsoever else. I need not tell you beside of the Mulberry plants for Silks, the infinite treasure by planting Vines, Olive trees, and Sugar canes, for Wines, Oils, and Sugars, nor of many other rich Plants, for Physical Drugs, Dies, Paints, and many other uses. And as for your Wine and Oils to be made here, besides many other profits, you shall therein be advantaged, above the West-Indies also, which have neither of these two Commodities; the King of Spain, in policy forbidding the planting of them there, notwithstanding the Country is very proper for them. For they two being the great Staple Commodities of Spain, the Canaries, and other his Dominions, with which they abound, and knowing that trade of Merchandise consists in bringing in of wares from one Country into another, maintains mutual traffic therefore, betwixt his West Indies and his other Dominions, by the taking of the Commodities of one another, which cannot be done, unless one Country have store of those Commodities, which the other wants; For store of the same Merchandise in all parts, would but glut & hinder all. Wherefore to balance the Commodities well of all his Dominions, for the good of all, the planting for Wines and Oils in the West Indies, upon good reasons were inhibited. The like he doth in Brasilia, who though they have store of Ginger there, yet may it not be carried from thence into Spain, for fear of impoverishing them of S. Domingo, whose chiefest Trade it is to get their livings by. And the like doth Great Britain for you here, which suffer no Sheep to be carried thither, that Cloth might not be made there, but so order it for the good of both, that you here shall have from thence, her native Commodities, and her Manufactures only, and use no foreign Merchandise, but such as is for health or like necessity, for which you return the proper Commodities of Virginia thither. Moreover, by the Art of skilful planting, grafting, transplanting, and removing, the bad wild plants are wonderfully bettered: Insomuch, as one of the best Authors of Husbandry saith, 
⋆ Ol. Serres Book. 6. Cham 17.  that every replanting or remooing of wild plants (having regard to the fitness of the soil and season) is worth half a grafting: so as two remooves then, are worth a whole grafting. One that hath writ a Historiosme, says well and wittily, 
⋆ Plin. natural. Hist. lib. 17. c. 10  that this removing and transplanting of wild plants, doth wonderfully mitigate and a ingentle them, whether it be (saith he) because that the nature of plants, as of men, is desirous of novelty and peregrination, or because that at their parting (from the former grounds) they leave there that rank wildness, virulence, and ill quality that is in them, and as wild beasts, so they become gentle by handling, whilst the Plant is plucked up by the root.  
Since then the transplanting and removing wild plants, do so much domesticate and enable them, I need not tell you then, how by grafting, or removing only, the Mulberry trees and wild Vines may infinitely be bettered; To show this, I will instance in one Plant for all. In the printed Book of the valuations of the commodities of Virginia, Sarsaparillia wild, is five pound the hundred, and Sarsaparillia domestic, is ten pound the hundred: so as the Spaniard having no other but the wild Sarsaparillia at first, yet by replanting and cultivating it, that he made it domestic, and so much thereby ennobled it in worth and goodness, as raised it to a double price you see. And the like is to be done with other wild plants, by the often removing or grafting of them. As he than that was asked, what was the first, and chiefest thing in Oratory, said, Pronunciation: and being demanded what was the second thing in it, and afterwards, what was the third, still answered, Pronunciation: so if I were asked what were the best Art, chiefly to advance the Plantation and Planters; I should answer as oft, or oftener, the Garden Art of planting, planting still. I could wish therefore, that every Freeholder, besides his proper profession, should be enjoined to have a Garden, and practise sometimes Gardening and planting: And that according to the custom and wise institution of the Roman Censors, those should be severely punished, that did not husband well their fields and Gardens, and well culture their Vineyards, Trees, and Plants. Let every one then in Virginia and the Summer Lands, that minds to have plenty of healthful food, and of good raiment, and of great wealth, let him begin to addict and delight himself, in this most profitable and pleasing Art of Gradening and grafting.  
Now whereas the labour of clearing the wooded grounds here in Virginia, is supposed by some to be a hindrance to your profit; it is nothing so; for the many great commodities that to good husbands may arise, by the wood still cleared off the grounds, will with large interest, mean while, repay the cost and labour, especially after that excellent and rare invention of Saw-Mills (an incredible advancement to the Colony) be once put in practice. What should I speak of the store of Timber, so necessary for your buildings, and other uses? for Clapbord, Pipe-staves, and other rich wood for noble services? or of the abundant store of wood, never to be spent, for your Iron works? and for your Glass Furnaces now set up? for Pot-ashes, and Soap-ashes? for boiling of Sugars? and of Pitch and Tar? and for all Furnace works? (the great devourers of fuel and destroyers of woods) beside, of the great use & profit of propping your Vines, by whole Trees or by stalks? & for poles for the Hops which grow here wild? But above all, what endless store of excellent Timber have you for the most excellent use of building Ships? And herein I cannot, I confess, conceal the pride I take in my Virginia. For what Country in the world again, abounds so plentifully as this, with all things whatsoever for making Ships? no one thing is wanting; for besides Timber of all sorts, for all uses in this kind, and store of Masts, no where taller and larger; you have tried Iron also of perfect goodness, and Silk grass, Flax, and Hemp, as well for Sails and Cordage, as for richer uses, and Forests of Trees for Pitch and Tar, so as nothing for this purpose was lacking here but only Shipwrights, which now also with great wisdom are lately sent, to build you Boats and Pinnaces for Trade, and Busses, for the richest fishing here that all the world affords. Of Cod and Sturgeon, of great skulls of Herring, as big again as those in other places, and such plenty also of other excellent fish unknown to these parts, that by credible report, 
⋆ M. Purchas in his Pilgrimage.  there have been 5000. taken at a draught, the least, of two foot in length, whereof likewise there might be a great gain made, by skilful salting, pickling, or drying of them. Moreover, besides the increase of shipping and of Mariners, and the store of sustenance that this fishing may yield unto the Colony (for which purpose therefore, no householder that is a good husband, will be without his Fisherboats and nets for his own provisions) there be yet other great advantages and profits also that it brings with it, namely, the fishing upon the coasts of Virginia, being much more timely then in other places, your Merchants have made their prime Markets, and are ready to return, before others come that bring their fish from other places. To this, Salt being made now in Virginia, you shall with small charge transport great multitudes of people hither: for since there may well be many hundred Sail employed in fishing here, people will be brought most part for the Salt, that they lad here for their fishing, which will cost you but little. And by this means also, may a double profit be raised unto the Planters, by bringing their people hither every fishing time, and as occasion serves, taking some of his men here with him to help him fish; which done, he sends them back again unto the Colony, to follow his Commodities and other businesses here. But to go on now, though this be granted by some, that the store of wood in Virginia well used, is no impediment but a matter of singular benefit to the Plantation, yet others object some other hindrances by the native Savages. But as for the many advantages that arise, rather by the just warring with them, and vanquishing of them (a matter so easy to be done) I refer you to the last declaration of the State and Colony of Virginia, where the reasons are well and fully handled. As for myself I utterly disclaim them, they have done against all my Laws, they are most unnatural, and so none of mine. And therefore they that know no industry, no Arts, no culture, nor no good use of this blessed Country here, but are mere ignorance, sloth, and brutishness, and an unprofitable burden only of the earth: Such as these (I say) like the Dai and Sylli, and such other people, are naturally borne slaves, as my chiefest 
Arist. ●. Politic. 〈…〉  Secretary well defines: And there is a natural kind of right in you, that are bred noble, learned, wise, and virtuous, to direct them aright, to govern and to command them. But others now there be, perhaps, that are discouraged from this worthy enterprise, by railers and scoffers at this noble Work, men next a kin, indeed, to these hateful Savages, enemies herein to God, their King, and Country; But regard not them. The mocker not regarded, is mocked himself. Go on then, and cheerfully proceed, especially in those my two fore-praised great Commodities, which if you do, as you know not yet the twentieth part of them that this rich Country yields, so those then also, I will show hereafter to you.  
Amongst all which, the most honourable and the chiefest is, that by the industry of some noble and heroic spirits (borne to immortalize their names and nation) a passage to the South Sea, will, beyond our Falls and Mountains, through the Continent of Virginia, assuredly be found. All the Indians from Canada to Florida, relate, that there is beyond the Mountains here, to the West, and Northwestward, a great Sea, and men and Ships, in shape and fashion like to yours that Trade there: So as this can be no fiction nor no falsehood: these diverse nations being so far asunder, all constantly agreeing in the same report. By this discovery and passage to the South Sea found, being from our Falls (by the Natives relation hereabouts, and by the judgement and computation of most learned Mathematicians) about a fortnight's journey only, or thereabouts, part to be made by land, and part by water, by some rivers leading to that Sea: what an infinite rich trade may there be made from hence then, to the East Indies, to China, to Cathay, and other places in the South Sea? For this passage, as it will be short, safe, and easy, so will it not only save the lives of many men now daily lost, and spare much shipping of necessity wasted, by the great long voyages that now are taken, but will also bring great wealth and treasure, trebling the gain now got, by your quick return that will be hereby made. Moreover also, what a great rich Staple? what a mighty Magazine of Commodities for all Christendom, will be thereby erected in Virginia, and make the speedy peopling, advancing, strengthening, and enriching of it, to the great and endless honour of his Sacred Majesty, in whose auspicious Reign, and by whose wisdom, favour, and gracious furtherance, this famous Work is brought to pass, to the unspeakable benefit of his flourishing Kingdoms, and to the everlasting glory, and immortal name of them, by whom this happy discovery must be perfected? But for this purpose, I refer you farther to the Treatise of the West and Northwest passage to the South Sea by Virginia, written by that excellent Mathematician Master Henry Briggs, and lately published, as also to his Map thereof, with a more large Discourse, shortly to come forth in Print.  
Lastly, remember now and practise what I have said, and in despite of malice, you shall find all solid truth that I have spoken to you. I take my leave now, and as I have blessed you many ways, so give I to all of you my hearty blessing. Prosper and farewell.   
FINIS.   

THE TREASUROUR COUNCIL AND COMPANY OF VIRGINIA, TO THE Governor and Council of State in Virginia residing.  
AFter our very hearty commendations: His Sacred Majesty, out of his high wisdom and care of the noble Plantation of Virginia, hath been graciously pleased to direct his Letters to us here in England, thereby commanding us to advance the setting up of Silk works, and planting of Vineyards; as by the Copy herewith sent, you may perceive.  
The intimation of his Majesty's pleasure, we conceive to be a motive sufficient, to induce you to employ all your endeavours to the setting forward those two Staple Commodities of Silk, and Wine; which brought to their perfection, will infinitely redound to the honour, benefit and comfort of the Colony, and of this whole Kingdom: yet we, in discharge of our duties, do again renew our often and iterated Instructions, and invite you cheerfully, to fall upon these two so rich, and necessary commodities. And if you shall find any person, either through negligence or wilfulness, to omit the planting of Vines, and Mulberry trees, in orderly and husbandly manner, as by the Book is prescribed, or the providing of convenient rooms for the breeding of Worms; we desire they may by severe censures and punishment, be compelled thereunto. And on the contrary, that all favour and possible assistance be given to such, as yield willing obedience to his Highness Commands therein. The breach or performance whereof, as we are bound to give a strict account, so will it also be required of you the Governor and Council especially. Herein there can be no Plea, either of difficulty or impossibility; but all the contrary appears, by the natural abundance of those two excellent Plants afore-named every where in Virginia: neither will such excuses be admitted, nor any other pretences serve, whereby the business be at all delayed: and as we formerly sent at our great charge the French Vignerons to you, to teach you their Art; so for the same purpose we now commend this Book unto you, to serve as an Instructor to every one, and send you store of them to be dispersed over the whole Colony, to every Master of a Family one. Silk-seed you shall receive also by this Ship, sufficient to store every man: so that there wants nothing, but industry in the Planter, suddenly to bring the making of Silk to its perfection: which either for their own benefit (we hope) they will willingly endeavour, or by a wholesome and necessary severity they must be enforced.  
This particular advice we thought necessary to give you, lest that if it should have come to you mingled with others, you would have interpreted it as a common Instruction, or a business that was not taken so to heart, as this is by us, and we hope will be by you in humble obedience to his Sacred Majesty's Royal Instructions. The pains and industry of the Author, for the benefit of the Plantations (being a member of our Company) are sufficient arguments of his good affection to the Action, and they both deserve your best acceptance and ours, that others may thereby be invited to impart their knowledge in business of this and the like nature; whereby the Colony may not only be supported for the present, but brought to that perfection, that may redound to the glory of God, the honour of his Majesty, and the inestimable benefit of his noble Kingdoms; which as they are the true aim and end the Adventurers and Planters have proposed unto themselves; so ought they to be still the honourable seeds to put others also forward in this action: we commend this business again to your special care. And so we commit you all, and your weighty affairs, to the protection of the Almighty.  
HENRY Southampton.