THE Book of Thrift, containing a perfit order, and right method to profit lands, and other things belonging to Husbandry.  
Newly Englished, and set out by I. B. Gentleman of Caen, in France.  
LONDON Printed by john Wolf. 1589.   

TO THE RIGHT Honourable Sir Francis Walsingham Knight, Chancellor of Lancaster, first Secretary of estate to the Queen's most excellent Majesty, and one of her majesties most Honourable privy Counsel, james Bellot Gentleman of Caen in Normandy, wisheth health.  
SIr,  
being not long agone in a friend's house of mine, he showed me an old Book of Parchment, in a written hand, entreating of sundry matters, and in sundry languages: The which, when I had opened it, I fell (by chance) upon a little Treatise of husbandry and ploughing, written in old French, so ill set together, and so strangely painted, that I had much a do before I could reap any thing of it: but finally, it was gods will (after I had long mused upon it) to show unto me the meaning of the same: And finding it a work right worthy to be put in the hands of the public, (because it entreateth of public affairs) I thought good, yea most reasonable, to commit it first into your learned hands, to the end that under the protection of your authority, it might walk in greater safety. Therefore, I beseech your Honour most humbly, to receive it acceptably, & to look on it with so bountiful an eye, that it may be the bolder to show itself: not only in English through all this Realm, but also in other languages throughout all inhabited countries: and so, your Honour shall graft within me a most entire, and most pure affection to pray unto God (as yet at this time I do pray) to grant you (in health, and long time) an increase of all Honourable estates, with true & eternal felicity.   

An account for Husbandry.  
FIrst he that shall render account, aught to swear that he shall render a true account, and shall charge himself with that, that he hath received of the Lords goods, & that he hath not put in his scroll by his good will, but that which he hath lawfully spent about the Lord's profit. And the clerk ought to swear, that he hath truly put in his account, that which he judgeth his master to have received of the goods of the Lord, and hath employed nothing but that which he knoweth to be for the Lords profit. And then if he have at other times rendered the like account: It ought be looked unto how it is divided, and if he be found in a rerage of money, or of corn, or of both, or of any other thing, let him cast up all to the just value of money, to charge therewith his account, at the beginning of his scroll, and to set it down after the accounts of other rends received for the Lord, and of all other things whereof never a penny may be levied, and to charge the account thereof, and to employ it at the end in a great sum, and after to go to the expenses.  
First, for the cost for carts, it is good for the smith to take a note, for to find out what is needful to have of iron, and of steel for the ploughs, and shoe the horses and all other their affairs, and to put that which may be behoveful to be done, and is accustomed to be given of allowance in the country: and the same man shall see, if within the manor there is growing any great wood, or great timber, or timber that a man may gather thereof axletrees, naves, and other necessary things to be felled, aswell for carts as for ploughs, so taking them a man may spare money. And for the overplus, which is not there to be had, and necessary for him to buy, let it be allowed unto him. And it will be good for him to have both Carters & ploughmen which can work all the timber of the carwood, the more are these two sorts of servants to be entertained. The said man shall see at the end of the year, all the small necessary things, all the provisions, all the iron, and all those things which in the manor do remain little and small, and to write after in the other year, what thing it behoved him necessarily to buy, and to allow the same, and the overplus lay up safely. The Provost ought to cause to be gathered all the pills of the trees to make cords, for that, that he shall need of, and he must cause, to sow within the yard, hemp to make cords for the carts, as halter's and other necessary things, & the making of them must be allowed unto him, if there be none of the household that can make them. Mending of houses, walls, hedges and ditches if need be, aught to be allowed according unto reason: yet the provost must not sell, buy, receive, nor deliver any thing except by tally, or by good testimony And the bailey must make all the servants of the house, when he cometh from labour, to labour about the yard, to thrash corn, or to make walls, ditches, hedges, or other necessary works about the house, for the sparing of money, and if there be any servant of the house that can do the work: he must therefore allow him more than any other: if he cause him to make that work, and allow another to work in his stead. The stewards or the bailiffs, shall see all the buyings, and all the sellings which the bailie or provost shall make, for to oversee that they be well done, and to the profit of the Lord. And the steward and bailies which do keep the court, incontinent after the said buying, aught to render their scrolls at the lords court, or to the auditors of the court, that they may charge by their scrolls the provosts, and bailies which do remain accountable of the profits of the yard for the whole year. And the provost must make account of the issue of the Mares of the yard, that is to wit, for each Mare a Colt by the year, and if there be any that have never a Colt, let it be inquired of, whether it be through ill regard, or by want of good keeping, or through over much travel, or by default of a stallion, or that she be barren and bringeth no colts, that he may have her changed for another in time: and it makes no matter whether he be in like manner charged of the issue or of the value of the same. And if there be any horse, or other beast dead, let it be inquired whether it be through the default of the keeper, or of the bailie, or of the provost, who might have well saved it, or to have employed some help about it, and did it not if they could, let them bear the loss thereof upon their own goods. And if they do die by mischance, that it be not by their fault, as of the Morien, and any other diseases upon beasts, let the provost be answerable of the carcases, and of the skins, and of the flesh, and the issues, and put them in the profit of the Lord, and let him employ that, that he shall know or be able to prove. And if there be any thing lost in the yard, or without, or stolen away, the which be it quick or dead, either little or great, whereby the Lord may have any manner of loss, either by burning, or by any other manner, the Lord must charge the pro ust therewith, and the provost must charge those of the yard which are guilty thereof. And it is to be known, that all the servants of the yard, men and women must be attendant on the provost, because that the provost must answer for all their actions, and the provost ought to bring into the Court those for whom he will answer for their deeds. And the steward must see that the provost enter good pledges for all those of the yard which are placed by the provost: and if the Lord receive any damages by the provost, and the provost hath not wherewithal he may restore the damages, all them of the town which have chosen him, shall answer the surplusage for him, of that, that he shall not be able to pay. And if the Lord doth place there a ponder, a field-kéeper, or a granger, or any other what soever he be, and the Lord do receive any damage by the fault of them the which he shall have there placed, the Lord ought to take his mends of them, because he placed them, and not of his provost. It is to be understood, that manors that are governed by bailies, where there is no provost, but the bailie who answereth for the manor that the said bailie shall render account, as the provost shall and all the other servants ought to answer to him for all things, without any alteration or change of words as unto the provost. And those which do hold in villeinage of any manner, aught to choose the provost such as they will be answerable for, for if the Lord doth receive any damage by default of the provost, and he hath not wherewithal to satisfy it, they shall pay for him the surplusage which he can not pay.  

An answer of the seeds that must be sown.  
ALL the land must be measured each one by itself, and every holding of the field named by their names, and every meadow by itself, and every pasture, every wood, and every heath, turberie, moor and marish also by themselves, and all by the perch of sixteen foot and a half, because it is easy for one to measure the land there by the pole of sixteen foot and a half. They do sow in many places four acres with one quarter, and in many other places, it is required to have one quarter and a half to sow five acres of wheat, and of rye, and of beans, and of peason, and two acres with one quarter of barley, and of oats. But because that some will be sown thicker than the other, the party ought to measure in each manor every acre by the corn, and see how much a man may sow of each kind of corn upon one measure, then may you always be certain of your sowing. And because that a man soweth barley upon a wheat field, and beans, and peason, and lentils among the oats, the party ought to name each land which is sown in barley amongst the wheat, and each land of other corn which is sown, amongst the oats. And there where the fields are divided in two, the winterage or wintercorne, and the tramis (otherways common barley) are sown in one and the same field. Therefore he must answer that of each land, what land is sown of one kind of corn, and which of another. And if there be any enclosure, he must see what land he taketh in the enclosure and with what corn he soweth each land, and the same seed he must score by itself out of the other grain.   

How a man ought to allow, or hire the harvest men in harvest time, and in time of making of hay.  
YOu may well have your lands weeded for a penny an acre, and the acre of meadow mowed for four pence, and the acre of land in the valley for three pence halfpenny, and take up and stub the acre for three halfpence, and to take up and stub the acre of meadow in the valley, for one penny farthing: and you ought well to know, that five men may well reap and tie two acres by the day of each kind of corn, some more, some less. And where every one taketh two pence by the day, yet you ought to give five pence for every acre, and unto many more. And when the four do take three halfpence a piece, by day, and the fift because he is a tier, two pence a day, you ought then to give for each acre four pence. And because that in many countries they cannot reap by the acre, yet may a man know by the reapers, and by the days, that which they do, so that you keep the reapers by the lands: to wit, five men or women the which you please, five men do make one land, and five & twenty men do make five lands: and five and twenty men may reap and tie ten acres by the day in seasonable weather, and in ten days an hundred acres, and in twenty days two hundred acres by five score to the hundred. Then you shall see how many acres he hath to reap, in all, and you shall see whether they agree with the days, and then shall you allow them: And if they do reckon more days than it behoveth according unto the order, you ought not to allow it them, for it is their fault that have not followed them, and caused them to work so well as they should.   

How lands ought to be measured.  
ANd because the acres are not all alike, for in some countries they do measure by the pole of eighteen foot, and in some countries by the pole of twenty foot, and in some countries by the pole of four and twenty foot: and you must know, that the acre that is measured by the pole of eighteen foot, maketh an acre and a rood and the sixteenth part of a rood, of the pole of sixteen foot, and four acres make five acres, and the fourth part of a rood, and eight acres, do make twelve acres and a half rood, and sixteen acres make twenty acres and one rood. And the acre which is measured by the pole of twenty foot, maketh an acre and a half, and the fourth part of a rood, of the pole of sixteen foot, and four acres do make six acres and one rood, and eight acres make twelve acres and a half, and sixteen acres both make five and twenty acres: and the acre which is measured by the pole of two & twenty foot, maketh an acre and a half and a rood and a half, and the sixteenth part of a rood of the pole of sixteen foot, and the four acres do make seven acres and a half, and the fourth part of a rood, and eight acres make fifteen acres and half a rood, and sirtéene acres do make thirty acres and one rood. And the acre which is measured by the pole of four and twenty foot, maketh two acres and a rood of the pole of sixteen foot, and four acres do make nine acres.   

The answer of the barn.  
OF the profits of the barn, the man ought to see how much of each corn he hath sown, and how much it doth answer in profit: that is by right and by common account, barley doth answer at the eight grain, that is to wit for every corn sown, eight corns increase: and the rye, at the seventh corn, and beans at the sixth bean, and peason at the sixth pease, and of dredges of barley, and of oats, if they be equally mingled, at the sixth: and if there be more barley than oats, it ought to answer the more, and if there be less barley, it must answer ethe less, & also of masline, if it be equally mingled must answer at the sixth, and if there be more wheat than rye, it answereth the less, & the wheat must answer at the fifth corn, and the oats at the fourth. But because the lands do not answer so well in one year as in another, the light lands do not answer as the good do: and beside, it happeneth that the winterage taketh well, and the Lent faileth, and sometimes the Lent taketh, and the winterage faileth: and therefore if the land answereth more than it is charged by the corn, the Lord looseth it, and if it doth answer less, of necessity it behoveth him which rendereth the account, to pay it of his own, and so no man can receive damage by the account aforesaid. And there is no peril to put men which may answer by the corn. and whosoever knoweth not the increase, let him place a faithful man in whom he trusteth beside the thresher of the barn: and it is good for him which is beside the thresher of the barn to score the increase of each heap in the barn by itself, for to see how many quarters each heap of corn ought to render by itself. And if there be any heap without, let him cause it to be measured by road, and by foot in height and length, when he will cause it to be threshed, and let him score each heap by itself, then shall he be able to know as well of each heap without, as of ache heap within the barn, both the stock & the profit: so that the heaps be every one of one height, and of one length: and if he will sell his corn by the great, he may the better know how much each heap ought to be worth, according unto the price of the corn, if he selleth the corn by the great. It is good for him to score, and to see the profit of each heap, and of each stack: for the oftener he shall try it, the certener he shall be of the profit, and of the stock, be cause that corn doth not answer every year equally: and let him take heed which is with the thresher of corn, that if he doth thrash any old corn with the new, he thrash, and score it by itself out from the new, and that the provost may answer the sale of the corn severally, and see the profit every year, whether it shall answer to his seed.   

Answer of dredges.  
ANd if you do make dredges, they must always answer to you for nine quarters the tenth at the least, and yet it is a very small answer, but a man may bring it to this reckoning, because that he may not make thereof a greater store, when he putteth in greater store of oats, the dredges thereof willbe worth the less, and of all the increase thereof the less Beer shall be made.   

The profit of the dairy, concerning the small store.  
ANd you ought to have in each place and dyarie a man or woman to keep the small store of the crop, as is aforesaid. And if there be a man, yet he must do all things even so as if a woman were there, and aught to take the quarter of the year of sixteen weeks for the white meat, where the other quarters are taken of twelve weeks, and he must sell all the corn, and shall take of the money of the dairy that is paid, to pay the woman which selleth it: If you do measure to sell four quarters of wheat, or of rye, and six quarters of barley, of peason, beans and minglings, you must allow in the sale one half penny and a half for every oen of them: if they be measured to sale eight quarters of oats, for the same one penny: and the man ought always to take in the quarter the fift for the full measure of every kind of grain: Also a man ought to thrash the quarter of wheat, or of rye for two pence, and the quarter of barley, beans and peason, for two pence halfpenny, and the quarter of oats for one penny, and to allow always for every fourth the fift for the full measure: and if the dairy wife take heed to all the said store which remains in the yard, as to the swine and peacocks, and to their increase, and to the geese and to their increase, and to the capons, and to the cocks, and to the hens, and to the chickens, and to the eggs and their increase: and you ought to know that the sow must pig two times by the year, and at each time seven pigs at the least, and every goose must bring forth five goslings by the year, and each hen must lay one hundred and fifty eggs, and breed seven chickens, whereof three must be made capons, and if there be to many hen chickens, she must change them for cock chickens: so many as it is here found that every hen must increase three capons and four hens by the year: and for five geese, it behoveth to have one gander, and to seven hens one cock. And each cow must answer one calf by the year, and each ewe sheep one lamb by the year: and if there be any cow or ewe sheep which bringeth forth no increase, let him inquire by whose default it is, either by the fault of the bailie, or of the provost, or of the keeper, through fault of good keeping, or by want of food in summer time, or in winter season, or through want of a male, or if the provost may have changed it for any other in an unmeet time. And if it be not found by the default of none of them, let him make a full change of the issue, or of the valour thereof. And also if none dieth by any manner of way by his default, let him be answerable for the quick beast, or of the value thereof: and if the mamour lacketh a dairy, it is always good to have a faithful woman for the lightest costs that a man may, for to keep the small store, crop, and all which is within the yard, and to answer all the issues as well of the crops, as of the dairy: to wit, of the sows and of their pigs, of the peacocks and of their chickens, of the geese and of their goslings, of the capons and of the cocks, of the hens and of their chickens, and of their eggs, and she must be answerable of the half of the selling of them, as well as of the dairy.   

Answer of the white meat of kine.  
EAch cow ought to answer from Michaelmas day till the first Kalends May, by eight and twenty weeks, the one and the older, the account of ten pence throughout all that time, the one more, and the other less. And it behoveth to understand, that every cow doth answer by equality, for the one giveth sooner milk than the other, and the one is sooner dry than the other, neither do the Heyforts answer so much milk at their first bearing, as they do at the other bearings after: but of those of eight year old, they ought to answer so much: and the next day after the first Kalends of May, till S. Michael's day, by four and twenty weeks, the one day so much as the other, and they do make right score and eight days, and the profit of the milk of every Cow, must be worth during that time, three shillings and six pence, & all the other season, the issue of the cow cometh to ten pence, & by this account every cow ought to answer iiij. shillings four pence, of the profit of the milk: and it is to be understood, that every cow must answer between the kalends of May, and Michaelmas, six stones of cheese, and always of six stones of cheese one stone of butter, and you ought always from the next day after Michaelmas till Saint Martin's day at the least, and in the other season, after Christmas till Summer time, it profiteth more to the Lord to sell the milk, then to sell cheese: for it is more profit then to sell a gallon of milk, then to sell three gallons in Summer, or at any other season: and if you do make cheese, than a gallon of milk will be no more worth than it is worth at any other season.   

The answer of the whitmeate of sheep.  
EAch milked sheep ought to answer profit of her milk, all the Summer long, so long as she gives milk six pence: for the sheep that gives milk, gives no milk after August, and no man doth keep them for to give milk after August, because that they are less worth, and are the more perilous to pass the Winter, and if they be sick, or feeble, their profit is the less. And the dairy wife ought to answer so much profit of a gallon of sheeps milk in cheese and butter, as of a gallon and a half of cows milk: and a gallon doth weigh seven pounds: and two gallons, do weigh fourteen pounds, and foure-pounds makes the stone. And it is to be known, that the Mare goeth forty nine weeks after she hath been covered, before she bring forth any colt. And the Cow from the time that she hath been covered goeth forty weeks before she bring forth any calf. And the sheep goeth xxj. weeks from the time she hath been covered, before she bring a lamb. And the sow goeth xv. weeks, from the time that she hath been covered, before she farow any pigs. And the sow farroweth her pigs five times in two years, and no more. And the goose breedeth one time by the year. And the hen hatcheth if she be well kept, and be good two times in a year, but that happeneth not every year: neither can every one of them give profit, but only according as they shall be well kept, answer they profit, either more or less.   

This husbandry made a Knight, sir Walter of Henly, who after rendered himself into the order of the Friers-preachers, & did reach unto the people, how they ought to live wisely and hohestly of their goods, and not to waste too much before hand, lest they should want after.  
THe father sat in his old age, and said to his son, Fair son, live wisely, according to God, and after the world. Towards God think often of the passion, and of the death that jesus Christ suffered for us, and love him above all things, and fear him, & keep his commandments. As touching the world, think ye on the wheel of fortune, how men have no riches, and when they are on the top of the wheel, how by mischance they do fall into poverty, and more into afflictions: therefore I pray you to order your life according as your lands are worth, and do extend by the year, and no higher: If you can improve your lands to gains, either by storing or by other purveyance more than the ordinary revenue, keep the overplus in store: for if corn fail, store dieth, or burning happeneth to come, or any other mischance, than the same that you have in store will be profitable to you. If you do spend by the year the worth of your lands, & any loss in the year or mischance happen to come, you have no recourse to your store, and let the storer make no waste, nor destroy his goods, as some men do, as those merchants which do by for twenty shillings, and do sell for ten, that man is neither called nor approved wise, that can deliver himself out of loss and doth it not. You may see some men which have lands and revenues, and can not tell how to live: wherefore I will tell it you, because they live without order, or any forecast, or provision afore hand, and they spend & waste more than their lands are worth by the year, and when they have wasted their goods: then have nothing but sorrow in their mouths, & do live in anguish, neither can they make any shift for their profit. Such a man may one reprove in English thus: Whoso striketh further than his whittle will last, in the stroke his foot he must stretch. Fair son, be you wise in your deed, and against this world which is so mischievous and ticklish, that you may want nothing, & that you need not to depend upon any man for your relief. If there be any men carting in your yards, let them be advised by their elders, & if in your judgement you think that they be too high minded, be you advised here to measure the same, so that you may not be reprehended thereby, neither here nor before God. Be you acquainted with honest persons & wise, & you shall have the love of your neighbours: for it is said in French: whosoever hath a good neighbour, the same hath a good morning. Use your tongue wisely, that you be not justly reprehended: you shall discretely spend those goods which God hath lent you.  
You ought to know four things, in layings out and in expenses: the first is, What ye must give, how & to whom, and how much you must give: for the first, that you must give before need requires it: for two shillings given then, are better accounted of then twelve shillings, when need forceth you to it: for the second, whether you ought to give, or to spend, and to do it willingly, than the same shall be double rewarded unto you, and if you do give unwillingly, you shall lose all that you do either give or lay out: for the third, give to him that may be profitable unto you & to others: for the fourth, how much you must give, neither more nor less, but according as the work is, either great, or little, that you have to do: look on the poor, not for the praises of the world, but for to have the love of God, which giveth us all things. You shall enlarge your lands and tenements by your loyal men sworn. First reckon your yards, gardens, dove-houses, orchards, what they may be worth by the year, besides your provision.  
Then reckon how many acres of meadow you have, and what they be worth by the year, and see also how much wood you may sell by the year, without any waste or destruction, and what the same may be worth by the year: and what your mills: and your fish ponds are worth by the year, besides the provision: and then reckon how many acres you have of arable land: and how many be of them in every field: and of free holds, how much each of them containeth, and by what service: and of copy hold, how much every one of them containeth, and by what services and customs or duties they be held, let them be employed and all other things wherein they do profit, account what they be worth by the year. And by the husbandmen, you shall inquire how much will serve to sow an acre of land, of every kind of corn, and how much provisions you may have upon every manor: and by the allowance you shall know how much your bailies must answer in their scrolls, besides the said allowance. So may you be able to know how much your lands are worth by the year, and your tenements also, whereby you may dispose of your living so as it is told you before, and whether your provosts do set down in their accounts so much corn sown, upon so many acres: So to the allowance, and perchance shall you find fewer acres than they will tell you, & more corn sown than it were need or requisite: for you have at the end of the allowance with how much a man may sow an acre of land of all sorts of grain. Besides this, if need were to bestow either more or less cost about the ploughs: by the allowance you shall be certified how: I will tell it you. If your lands are divided by three, the one part to the winter, and another part in Lent, and the third part in resting land, then is the plough nine score acres. And if your lands be divided by two, the one moiety is sown in winter, and in Lent: and the other moiety in resting land, then shall the plough be of eight score acres. Go you to the allowance, and see how many acres in demain land you have, and thereby you may be certified as well how much the plough of eight score acres hath to do, as the plough of nine score acres hath to do. I will show unto you, that of eight score acres, is forty acres of winteredge, and forty acres of lent, and four score acres of resting land: Return and replough the four score acres, and then the plough shall go of twelve score acres. Concerning the plough of nine score acres, three score acres for winteredge, and three score acres for lent, and three score for resting land, and then run over and plough again the three score acres. Then shall the plough go for twelve score acres by the year, as the plough of eight score: Some men do say, that a plough cannot do so much by the year, I will show you that it may do it: You know that an acre ought to be of forty poles in length, and four poles in breadth, and the kings pole is of sixteen foot and an half. Then is the acre of sixty six foot of breadth: Now go on forward thirty three times about, and take room of one foot in breadth. Then is the acre otherwise. But go thirty six times about for to make the room narrow, and when the acre is gone forward then you have gone seventy and two furlongs, which do make six leagues, that is to wit, twelve furlongs for one league: the horse shall be very poor, or the ox either, the which in one morning cannot go softly and with a little pace the way of three leagues, and to go back at noon. And by another reason I will show you that it may do so much. You know that there is fifty two weeks in one year: now take away eight weeks for the holy days and other lets, then shall remain forty four weeks of travail, and in all that time the plough shall have to do, but the ploughing of the resting land, and the ploughing of the sowing in winter, and in Lent, the dayes-worke of three roods, and half a rood, and to stir again one acre. Now see you, whether a plough which is well kept and followed, may not do so much in one day, and if you have lands whereon dungue may be laid, take pains to dungue it according as the land doth require: and have regard to know whether your land be well in dungue, and whether your dungue be well kept as it must, than it shall answer to the third part of your lands by the allowance. Be they your tenants or customers, if they do deny customs or services by your allowance, you shall know the certainty.  
If you be to choose bailiffs, or serge, ants, choose them neither by kindred, nor by favourable word, nor by any other like things, if they be not of good name, and let them be honest and ancient, and such as know the profit of the dungue. Take no corne-kéepers but of your homagers and lande-holders': and if you do choose them, let them be of your homagers choosing: for if they trespass, you shall have your remedy upon them.  
At the beginning of breaking, tilling and sowing of your lands, see that the bailiffs and the keepers or provosts, be always in company with the ploughmen to see that they work plainly, and do well their work, and at their journeys end, to see how much they have done, so that they may be answerable for all afterwards, except they can be able to show certain apparent let: and because that servants are commonly slack in their works, it is needful to cast over their frauds. In the mean time it is needful for the keeper to admonish them every day. On the other part, the bailiff ought to look so well about it, that they do well: and if they do not well, let them be rebuked, and corrected for it.  
You shall at the plough of oxen draw one of your horses: for the plough of oxen (if the land be not stony) can not shift their feet. The plough of oxen is far better than the plough of horses, The cause why? I will tell it you. The horse doth cost more than the ox: besides that, the plough of oxen is so much worth by the year as the plough of horses, because that the naughtiness of ploughmen suffereth not the horses to go more than their pace. Besides the same for the stayings, the plough of horses shall stay, when the plough of oxen shall go on. And will you see, how much the horse costeth more than the ox, the same I will tell you: It is always accustomed, that those beasts which do serve about the plough, do lie in at the manger, betwixt Saint Luke's feast, & holy crosse-feast in May, during twenty five weeks: and yet the horse must be well kept to do his days journey, he must have oats by night, the sixth part of a bushel of oats esteemed at a halfpenny, he must have at the laest twelve sheaves of grass in Summer time every week, some horses more and some less, of one penny the burden. Concerning the shoowing, if they be shoowed of all four feet, the sum riseth to twelve shillings five pence halfpenny by the year, besides the fodder and the straw: and if the ox be in good liking to do his work, than it is needful to allow him at the least, three sheaves and a half of oats by the week, rated at one penny, and in Summer season twelve burdens of grass, rated at two shillings and one penny besides fodder and straw, and ten sheaves of oats, do answer a bushel of oats heap measure. And when the horse is old and tired, then is there in him nothing good but the skin. And when the ox is old, with twelve burdens of grass, he will be worth being fatted, or being sold, so much as he did cost you first, or more.  
In breaking time, is a good season for the ploughman, if the ground breaketh after the plough: and the fallowing after Midsummer day, it is best for him when the dust doth rise after the plough: and in the ear-ring & sowing time, when the land is settled, and is not too close: but he that hath much to do, can not have all the good seasons. And when you do break deep any good land, then must you square furrow, for to have good resting land: but prick it not to deep but sparingly, only doing so that ye may destroy the thistles & the weeds: for if the land be fallowed to deep, and if it be wet and waterish when it is eared and sown, the plough can not then reach any certain ground: but it shall go flowing as in a good ground: and if the plough might go two finger deeper than the land was fallowed, then should the plough find the certain ground, and should be cleansed, and should make fair and good ploughing.  
In sowing time, do not plough large furrow but a little one, and well joined together, that the seed may well fall. And if you do plough large furrows for to make great dispatch, you shall do hurt as I will tell you. When the land is sown, the harrow will come that shall rake all the seed on the hill which is between the surrowes, and the furrow which is large shall be discovered, and there shall grow no corn: and to show you that it is so, when the corn is upon the ground, go to the head of the land, and look on the corn towards the other head, and you shall see that the same which I tell you is true.  
If the ground be to be sown upon the furrow, see that it be tilled with little furrows, and the ground so high as you may possible, and see that the furrow, which is betwixt the two furrows, be strait, and the land which lieth as it were a comb in that furrow, under the left foot after the plough, that it may be all turned, and then the furrow shall be straight enough.  
Sow your lands betimes, so that the earth be settled, and the corn well rooted before the coming of the hard winter.  
If perchance it happeneth that any great rain falls upon the land within the eight days, that it is sown, and then a hard frost comes two or three days after, if the land be hollow, the frost shall pierce the earth so deep as the water is gone in, and therefore the corn which is sprowted shall be incontinet rotten.  
Two perils that are in sowing in Lent season sowings so betimes: The earth that is clayish, and the stony ground, I will tell you wherefore: if it be a dry season in March, than the clayish earth shall wax too hard, and the stony ground shall wax drier, when it is covered, wherefore it needeth, that such lands be sown in a convenient time, so that the corn may be well nourished by the moistness of the winter. The hollow lands need not to be sown otherways but in their time: for these two are two sorts of ground which fall to be hollow and great in show, but in the sowing of them, let the lands be somewhat wet. And when your lands be sown: cause to scour well the marish, and other waterish grounds, and cause the ditches about them to be well cleansed, that thereby your land may be the sootter dried from the water.  
'Cause to cleanse, and weed your corn after Midsummer day, for it is not good to do it afore. And if you do cut of the thistles, a fortenight, or a seven-night before Midsummer day, of each shall come two or three: cause your corn to be wisely reaped and put in the barn.  
To make the profit of your barn, see that you entertain a faithful honest man, that may faithfully charge the provost: for it is seen often that the Barner, and the granetier, do join together to do ill: let your provost, and your granetiers cause the same corn to be truly carried, but measure of eight bushels, one peck for the waste and decay, at the coming in, and at the going out of the barn: for their is deceit in the heaping, as I will tell you. When the provost hath rendered account of the profit of the barn, then cause the bushel to be proved wherewithal it was charged: and you shall find that four heaped quarters, shall make the fift, a little more or a little less, and if the bushel be narrower of five quarters: this take, and if it be narrower of six quarters, then take the seventh: and if it be yet narrower of the seven quarters, then take the eight: and yet being narrower of eight quarters, take the ninth, and of each of them a little, either a little more or a little less, according to their bigness: Now some of these proofs of measure will render a true account but with the ninth quarter, what bushel soever it be, either broad or narrow will do it. And if the bushel be broad there is a great deceit, if the profit of your barn answereth but to the third of your seed, you get nothing except the corn be very well sold: you know well that an acre of land which is sown with wheat, will have three tillings, except those lands the which are sown every year, some more, some other less. Each tilling is worth six pence, and the harrowing is worth one penny: and it behoveth to sow upon every acre two bushels at the least, and these two bushels are at the least worth at Michaelmas twelve pence, and the weeding a halfpenny, and the cutting down five pence, and the carrying in harvest one penny, and the fodder shall quite the thrashing. And the third part of the seed ought to yield six bushels of Wheat: And if at Michaelmas Wheat be worth four shillings, then are six bushels worth three shillings, and your harvest charges do amount to three shillings one penny and halfpenny.  
Change every year the seed at Michaelmas: for the seed which is grown upon other land will prove better, than the seed which is grown upon the same land. And if you will see it, cause to till two forelands of one and the same land, and in one day, and sow the one with the feed that you have bought, and the other with the seed which is grown upon the same land: and when you come in harvest time, you shall prove that I tell you true.  
Sell not, neither stir not your stubble, because that for the less you should lose the most.  
When you cause dungue to be kept, with good earth, cause your dunguehil to be dressed & mingled with the dungue, and cause every fortenight to draw out of your sheepcote wherewith to dungue your clayish ground if you have it, or with some good earth drawn out of the ditches, and then scatter it upon, and if there remain any fodder besides the sustainement of your cattle: you shall cause it to be scattered within in the yard, and within the mire, and in your sheepcote also, cause it to be scattered, and in like manner in your modde, & before the drought of March, cause all your dungue to be heaped together, which is in the stables, in the yard, and without. And when you mind to dungue your ground, and the same to carry, you must have a man whom you trust well, that is faithful unto you, to follow your carts the first day, and if he seeth that they do their work without feigning, see at the journeys end how much they have done: and let them answer so much every day, except they may show some certain let. Your dungue which is mingled with earth, you shall put upon sandy ground if you have any, the cause wherefore I will tell you. The Summer time is hot, and the dungue hot, and when the third heat is assembled to them, by the great heat they do whither away after midsummer day. The barley doth grow in a sandy ground as you may well see where you go in many places. On the Evening, the land which is mingled with dungue, causeth the sand to wax cold, and raiseth up dew, and therefore that your lands that are sown may bring forth the more, dungue them, and till them not too deep, because that the dungue is marred in turning in too deep. How I will tell you what advantage you shall have by the straw which is mingled with the earth. If the dungue be but itself, it may last three years, or there abouts, according as the land is either cold or hot. The dungue which is mingled with earth, doth last the double, but it shall not be so quick: you know well that the marvel, lasteth more than straw, why so? Because that the dungue wasteth in turning it deep into the earth, and the marvel in turning of it out of the earth. And why doth the dungue mingled with earth last longer than the pure dungue, I will tell it to you. The dungue and the earth which are tilled together sustaineth the straw that it wasteth not in the turning in, though it should waste naturally. Therefore I pray you to cause dungue to be kept according to the ability. And your dungue which is scattered, and somewhat moistened, is in season good to be turned, for the ground and the dungue shall then take the better together. And if you put your dungue upon fallows, it shall be all at the stirring turned under the ground, & in sowing time shall come up again, with the mingled ground: and if it be put upon stirring in sowing time, it shallbe turned the more upon the earth, and the less mingled with the ground and that is not approved: and the nearer the dungue is to the seed it is better: at the feast of our Lady, first cause to fatten your dungue, according as you have of sheep, either more or less: for they do in that season cast much fattening.  
Make once in the year your provision, draw between Easter and Whitsunday, to wit, your oxen and kine, and other cattle which are not to be kept: let them be put to fatten to grass, and you shall gain: and know the certainty that then the worst is better worth than the best. How? I will tell it you: If they be cattle for burden, they must be kept better than the other and more made of, else the other are the more grieved by their default: and if you must buy any store, buy it between Easter and Whirsuntide: for then are cattle lean, and good cheap: And before your horses be too old, or tired, or lean, or of small valour, you may sell them away in due season, and then may you relieve yourself with good and young. How store should be kept it is good you should know it, to make your servants wise: for when they shall see that you know it, they shall endeavour to be the better.  
The cattle for the plough must have pasture sufficient to do their work, and that they be not laboured too much under, when they shall come to the manger: for you should bestow too much cost to restore them, and so your gains should be diminished: put them in no houses in rainy weather: for surfeiting may come betwixt the hair and the skin, which turneth to the great damage of your cattle: and if your cattle have their ordinary provender let it be given to them by day light, at the sight of the hayward, or of the provost, & mingle it with a little straw of wheat, or of oats, and not of barley straw, because barley straw hath too many beards, which will offend the mouths of the horses. And why do you say so? by proof of the straw I will tell it you: because it happeneth often that thieves do steal their provender, and the horses do eat straw better than the provender, and do fatten, and do become better. And let not much fodder be given to the oxen at once, but little at once and often, and then they eat it well, and waste little of it: and when there is greater quantity before them, they do eat their bellies full, than they do lie down, and do gnaw, and with the blowing of their breath, do begin to hate and to waste it. And let the cattle be kept clean, and when they be dry curry them, for that doth them good: and let the oxen be curried with a wisp the day, and they shall lick themselves the better. Let your kine have sufficient pasture, lest they give the less milk. And when the ox calf is calved, let him have his milk one whole month: at the months end take from him a dug, and every week one dug, them shall he suck eight weeks, and lay food before him that he may learn to ease: and let the cowe-calfe be at her milk three weeks: at the tree weeks end take away from her all the other dugs, as from the oxe-calfe, and let them have wait and food before them, be they within the house or without: for many do die on the ground of the disease of the lights, for lack of water. Besides that, if there be any ox which gins to be out of flesh, bestow some cost to sustain him: for it is truly said, that the penny is well bestowed that bringeth in two pence. If your kine be feeble, pick them out, and those that be not good, put them away. And if your kine be fed in pasture of salt marish ground, then ought two kine to answer a stone of cheese, and half a gallon of butter by the week: and if they be fed in pasture of wood, or in meadows, after mowing time, or in stubble, then must three kine answer by the week, one stone of cheese, and half a gallon of butter: between Easter & Michaelmas without any reply of second hay between Easter and Michaelmas, and twenty bearing sheep, which are fed in pasture of salt marish ground, must and may well answer both of cheese and butter even so as the kine aforesaid. And if your sheep be fed with fresh pasture & of fallows, thirty bearing sheep ought to answer of butter and cheese, even so as the kine afore mentioned. Now there be many great provosts and surveyors, the which will gainsay this thing, and the reason wherefore they do it, is because that they do eat, give & waste the whitemeat: and know ye, that for to see if the whitemeate is not spent, nor otherwise wasted, except about the thing aforesaid your kine & shape may be so much the better, & aught to answer the proofs aforesaid: will you see it in them how three kine must make a stone of cheese: the cow of one of these three kine shallbe but poor, of the which a man cannot make in two days one cheese, worth one halfpenny, which is according to the rate of those days, in six days iij. chéeses worth three halfpence, & the seventh day of the week is not in the account, because that the seventh day shall help for the tenth, and for the waist, & is allowed for the cost. Though it were but three halfpence in the week in xxiv. weeks which are betwixt Easter and Michaelmas, there shallbe three shillings for the worst cow. Now set down the profit of the second cow at so much, & of the third cow even at so much, then have you ix. shillings, & therefore you may have a stone of cheese commonly to sell▪ And one of the three kine shallbe but poor, of the which a man can not reap the third part of a pottle of butter by the week, and if the gallon of butter is worth six pence, then is the third part of a pottle worth one penny.  
cause your hogs to be tried once in the year, and if you do find any one that is not sound remove it. Keep you neither Boar nor Sow except they be of good kind. Your other Sows shall you cause to be gelded if they do not pig: then shall you have bacon made of them, even as good as of the hog. In winter must you feed them that they perish not, and that they may be well able to pig: in three months they need to be kept with good food, to wit, in February, March and April, and three times in the year, must your sows farrow pigs, except it be through ill keeping. A nourishment in swine is to have a long morning, and to lie dry. cause your hogs to be gelded whiles they be young, than they shall grow the better.  
See that your shepherd be not too hasty, for by hastiness cattle may be to villainously driven, that thereby, they may happen to perish. When sheep do go a feeding, and the shepherd is amongst them to hasty, and driving the sheep too hastily, then is that a token that he is not gentle to his sheep.  
cause your sheep to be milked every year between Easter and Whitsonday, and those that are not to be milked, cause them to be shorn betimes, and mark them from the other, and put them in woods that be closed, or within some other pasture ground where they may fatten, and sell them about Midsummer: for than is sheeps flesh in season, and let there wool be sold by itself, with the skins of them that are dead of the morrion. And when you have sold your sheep, your wool and your skins aforesaid, set up again in their steads so many sheep. Some men do set up again others by the profit they make of them that are dead of the morrion, how? I will tell you: if one sheep dieth suddenly, they do put the flesh into the water, so long as from the morning till noon, and then do hang it up, and when the water is dried up, they cause it to be salted and dried: and if they do see that any sheep begins to pine away, be it either that her teeth do fall, or that her teeth falls not, they cause them to be killed, powdered and dried as the other, and then they do cause them to be pressed, and do spend them at home among their men, and journeymen, and so much as the prize amounteth, they do render in season: and of that, and the skins they do set up again so many other sheep: but I wish not you to do the like. See that your sheep be within at home, between the feast of Saint Martin, and Easter: I will not say but if the ground be dry, and the water be drawn to his course and place, and the weather be fair, that your muttons may not lie out: and let them that be kept at home have hay, either more or less, according as the weather is: and cause to dung the floor of the sheepcote every fortenight, so as I have told you heretofore, and let straw be laid upon the same. And know ye, that you shall have more profit, then if they did lie in the mire: and if your sheep are within in stormy weather, let them be by themselves, and let them have of the coarsest hay, or hay mingled with wheat straw, or oat straw well threshed: Wherefore, I will tell you: They are tossed by night in the mire by stormy weather, and the next day after by reason of their lying they do not feed, and then they do come to the crib hungry, and the stronger do thrust out the feeble, and do swallow up without gnawing the small hay, and the sheep that hath eaten her belly full gnaweth her fodder, and that fodder which is not gnawn nourisheth not, but remaineth within the body, and therefore is unnatural, whereby many do perish: and if the fodder be mingled, they will eat it the better because of the coarseness of the fodder: and if you do lack hay, take the cods and the straw of peason, which is good fodder for sheep. And when your lambs are yeaned, let the shepherd take away the wool which is about the dugs: for it happeneth often that the wool sticketh in the lambs mouth, and so the lamb swalloweth it up: and it remaineth within their stomach, and thereby many are perished: and at the feast of S. Simon and Saint Jude, cause to draw out two of the middle sort, and two of the best, and two of the worst, and if you do find that they be not sound, cause the best of them to be sold, and let honest persons have them upon good surety, till hogges-day, and then cause other to be set up again in their stead.  
Of geese and hens, let 'em be at the discretion of the bailie, because that all the time I was a Bailiff, both Geese and Hens were let to farm, Geese for twelve pence, Hens for three pence, and some for four pence, by the year.  
Sell and buy in due season, having always one honest man or two, which may testify of all things: for there be some other persons than those which are accountable, the which do increase the buyings, and do diminish the sellings: and if any rerage run lying upon the final account, let it be quickly gathered up: and if they do name certain persons which do owe the rearages: keep with you their names: for it happeneth often that Servants and provosts, do serve their own turns, and do cause others to serve their turns which they ought not: and they do the same, for to hide their own delays. Make a view of the account, or cause it to be made, by some trusty person, once in the year, and a final account at the years end. The view of account must be made, to know the estate of things, as of the profits, receipts, sales, buyings, and other expenses. And thereupon, if there be any money remaining, take it out of the hands of the Servants: for it happeneth often that Servants, and provosts do make merchandise by themselves or by others, with their Lord's money, to their profit, and not to the profit of their lords, the which thing is not honest: if you must buy or sell in the country where is no good order: be you then well advised, for you may be defrauded by them which cannot be contraried. Those that have the custody of such things, must of necessity have these four things: To love and fear their Lord, and as for the raising of profit, they ought to do it as though the thing were their own: and as for their expenses, they should so expend, as supposing the thing not to appertain unto an other. There be many servants and provosts which have these four things together: but many there are which have fled from the three first, and keep the fourth, and have used the same contrary to right, as a thing appertaining to an other: receiving and taking with both their left & right hand, when as they think that their delays can be by no means perceived or known.  
Visit often your things, and cause them to be visited: for it is said in a common saying: Who often visiteth his own goods, if he gaineth not, he doth not lose: and those which serve you by the year, shall the more beware to 〈◊〉 ill, and shall endeavour themselves the more to do their best.   
Here endeth Husbandry.