Read Ebook: The English Husbandman The First Part: Contayning the Knowledge of the true Nature of euery Soyle within this Kingdome: how to Plow it; and the manner of the Plough and other Instruments by Markham Gervase

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e content to make a vertue of necessitie, and plant it in such a place as is most conuenient, and nearest alyed to that forme before prescribed.

Now when you haue found out a perfect ground-plot, you shall then cast it into a great large square, which you shall fence in either with a stone or bricke wall, high, strong pale, or great ditch with a quicke-set hedge, but the wall is best and most durable, and that wall would haue vpon the inside within twelue or fourt?ene foote on of another, Iames or outshoots of stone or bricke, betweene which you may plant and plash those fruit-tr?es which are of greatest tendernesse, the South and West Sunne hauing power to shine vpon them.

When you haue thus fenc'st in this great square, you shall then cast foure large alleyes, at least fourt?ene foote broad, from the wall round about, and so likewise two other alleyes of like breadth, directly crosse ouerthwart the ground-plot, which will deuide the great square into foure lesser squares, according to the figure before set downe.

The figure 1. sheweth the alleyes which both compasse about, and also crosse ouer the ground-plot, and the figure 2. sheweth the foure quarters where the fruit-tr?es are to be planted.

Now if either the true nature and largnesse of the ground be sufficient, or your owne abilitie of pursse so great that you may compasse your desires in these earthly pleasures, it shall not be amisse, but a matter of great state, to make your ground-plot full as bigge againe, that is to say, to containe eight large quarters, the first foure being made of an euen leuell, the other foure being raysed at least eight foote higher then the first, with conuenient stayres of state for ascending to the same, to be likewise vpon another euen leuell of like forme, and if in the center of the alleyes, being the mid-point betw?ene the squares, might be placed any quaint fountaines or any other antique standard, the platforme would be more excellent and if vpon the ascent from one leuell to another there might be built some curious and arteficiall banquetting house, it would giue luster to the Orchard.

Now for the planting and furnishing of these quarters: you shall vnderstand that if your Orchard containe but foure quarters, then the first shalbe planted with Apple-tr?es of all sorts, the second with Peares and Wardens of all sorts, the third with Quinces & Chesnutes, the fourth with Medlars & seruices. Against the North side of your Orchard wall against which the South sunne reflects, you shall plant the Abricot, Verdochio, Peach, and Damaske-plumbe: against the East side of the wall, the whit Muskadine Grape, the Pescod-plumbe, and the Emperiall-plumbe: against the West side the grafted Cherries, and the Oliue-tr?e: and against the South side the Almond, & Figge tr?e. Round about the skirts of euery other outward or inward alley, you shall plant, the Wheate-plumbe, both yealow & redde, the Rye-plumbe, the Damson, the Horse-clog, Bulleys of all kindes, ordinary french Cherryes, Filberts, and Nuts of all sorts, together with the Prune-plumbe, and other such like stone fruits. But if your Orchard be of state and prospect, so that it containe eight quarters or more then you shall in euery seuerall quarter plant a seuerall fruit, as Apple-tr?es in one quarter, Peares in another, Quinces in another, Wardens in another, and so forth of the rest. Also you shall obserue in planting your Apples, Peares, and Plumbes, that you plant your summer or early fruit by themselues, and the Winter or long lasting fruit by themselues. Of Apples, your Ienitings, Wibourns, Pomederoy, and Qu?ene-Apples are reckoned the best earely fruits, although their be diuers others, and the Pippin, Peare-maine, Apple-Iohn, and Russetting, your best Winter and long lasting fruit, though there be a world of other: for the tastes of Apples are infinite, according to there composition and mixture in grafting. Of Peares your golden Peare, your Katherine-Peare, your Lording, and such like, are the first, and your stone-Peare, Warden-Peare, and choake-Peare, those which indure longest. And of Plumbes the rye-plumbe is first, your Wheate-plumbe next, and all the other sorts of plumbes ripen all most together in one season, if they haue equall warmth, and be all of like comfortable standing.

Now for the orderly placing of your tr?es, you shall vnderstand that your Plumbe-tr?es would be placed in rowes one by one, aboue fiue foote distance one from another, round about each skirt of euery alley: your Apple-tr?es & other greater fruit which are to be planted in the quarters, would be placed in such arteficiall rowes that which way soeuer a man shall cast his eyes yet h?e shall s?e the tr?es euery way stand in rowes, making squares, alleyes, and deuisions, according to a mans imagination, according to the figure before, which I would haue you suppose to be one quarter in an Orchard, and by it you may easily compound the rest: wherein you shall vnderstand that the lesser prickes doe figure your Plumbe-tr?es, & the greater prickes your Apple tr?es, and such other large fruit.

Now you shall vnderstand that euery one of these great tr?es which furnish the maine quarter, shall stand in a direct line, iust twelue foote one from another, which is a space altogether sufficient inough for there spreading, without waterdropping or annoying one another; prouided that the Fruiterer, according to his duty, be carefull to preserue the trees vpright and to vnderprope them when by the violence of the winde they shall swarue any way. Vpon the ascent or rising from one leuell to another, you may plant the Barberry-tr?es, Feberries, and Raspberries, of all sorts, which being spreading, thorny and sharpe tr?es, take great delight to grow thicke and close together, by which meanes often times they make a kinde of wall, hedge, or fencing, where they stand.

Hauing thus shewed you the ground-plot and proportion of your Orchard, with the seuerall deuisions, ascents, and squares, that should be contained therein, and the fruits which are to furnish euery such square and deuision, and their orderly placing, it now rests that you vnderstand that this Orchard-plot, so neare as you can bring it to passe, doe stand most open and plaine, vpon the South and West sunne, and most defended from the East and North windes and bitternesse, which being obserued your plot is then perfect and absolute.

Now forasmuch as where nature, fruitfulnesse, and situation doe take from a man more then the halfe part of his industrie, and by a direct and easie way doth lead him to that perfection which others cannot attaine to without infinit labour and trauell: and whereas it is nothing so commendable to maintaine beautie, as to make deformitie beautifull, I will speake something of the framing of Orchard-plots there where both nature, the situation, and barrainnesse, doe vtterly deny the enioying of any such commoditie, as where the ground is vneuen, stonie, sandy, or in his lownesse subiect to the ouerflow of waters, all being apparant enemies to these places of pleasure and delight. First, for the vneuennesse of the ground, if that be his vttermost imperfection, you shall first not onely take a note with your eye, but also place a marke vpon the best ascent of the ground to which the leuell is fittest to be drawne, and then plowing the ground all ouer with a great common plough, by casting the furrowes downward, s?eke to fill in and couer the lesser hollownesses of the ground, that their may not any thing appeare but the maine great hollowes, which with other earth which is fr?e from stones, grauell, or such like euils, you shall fill vp and make leuell with that part where your marke standeth, and being so leuelled, forthwith draw the plot of your Orchard: but if the ground be not onely vneuen but also barraine, you shall then to euery loade of earth you carry to the leuelling adde a loade of Manure, either Oxe Manure, or Horse Manure, the rubbish of houses, or the clensings of olde ditches, or standing pooles, and the earth will soone become fertill and perfect; but if the ground be stonie, that is, full of great stones, as it is in Darbishire about the Peake or East Mores, for small pibbles or small lime-stones are not very much hurtfull, then you shall cause such stones to be digd vp, and fill vp the places where they lay either with marle, or other rich earth, which after it hath b?ene setled for a y?ere or two you shall then plough, and leuell it, and so frame forth the plot of your Orchard. If the ground be onely a barraine sand, so that it wanteth strength either to maintaine or bring forth, you shall then first digge that earth into great trenches, at least foure foote d?epe, and filling them vp with Oxe Manure, mixe it with the sand, that it may change some part of the colour thereof and then leuelling it fashion out your Orchard. But lastly, and which is of all situations the worst, if you haue no ground to plant your Orchard vpon, but such as either through the neighbourhood of riuers, descent of Mountaines, or the earths owne naturall quallitie in casting and vomiting out water and moysture, is subiect to some small ouerflowes of water, by which you cannot attaine to the pleasure you s?eke, because fruit-tr?es can neuer indure the corruption of waters, you shall then in the dryest season of the y?ere, after you haue marked out that square or quantitie of ground which you intend for your Orchard, you shall then cast therein sundry ditches, at least sixt?ene foote broad, and nine foote d?epe, and not aboue twelue foote betwixt ditch and ditch, vpon which reserued earth casting the earth that you digged vp, you shall raise the banckes at least seauen foote high of firme earth, and k?epe in the top the full breadth of twelue foote, with in a foote or little more: and in the casting vp of these bankes you shall cause the earth to be beaten with maules and broad b?etels that it may lye firme, fast, and leuell, and after these bankes haue rested a y?ere or more, and are sufficiently setled, you may then at the neather end of the banke, neare to the verge of the water plant store of Osyers, which will be a good defence to the banke, and vpon the top and highest part of the banke you shall plant your Orchard and fruit-tr?es, so that when any inundation of water shall happen, the ditches shalbe able inough to receiue it; or else making a passage from your Orchard into some other sewer, the water exc?eding his limits may haue a fr?e current or passage: besides these ditches being neatly kept, and comforted with fresh water, may make both pleasant and commodious fish-ponds. Also you must be carefull in casting these bankes that you doe not place them in such sort that when you are vpon one you cannot come to the other, but rather like a maze, so that you may at pleasure passe from the one to the other round about the ground, making of diuers bankes to the eye but one banke in substance, and of diuers ponds in appearance, but one in true iudgement. And thus much for the plot or situation of an Orchard.

Although great persons, out of their greatnesse and abilitie, doe buy their fruit tr?es ready grafted, and so in a moment may plant an Orchard of the greatest quantitie, yet sith the Husbandman must raise euery thing from his owne indeauours, and that I onely write for his profit, I therefore hould it most conuenient to beginne with the nursery or store-house of fruits, from whence the Orchard receiueth his beauty and riches.

This Nursery must be a piece of principall ground, either through Art or Nature, strongly fenced, warme, and full of good shelter: for in it is onely the first infancy and tendernesse of fruit-tr?es, because there they are first kernells, or stones, after sprigs, and lastly tr?es.

Now for the manner of chusing, sowing, and planting them in this nursery, I differ some thing from the french practise, who would chuse the kernells from the cider presse, sow them in large bedds of earth, and within a yeere after replant them in a wilde Orchard: now for mine owne part, though this course be not much faulty, yet I rather chuse this kinde of practise, first: to chuse your kernells either of Apples, Peares, or Wardens, from the best and most principallest fruit you can taste, for although the kernell doe bring forth no other tr?e but the plaine stocke vpon which the fruit was grafted, as thus, if the graft were put into a Crab-stocke the kernell brings forth onely a Crab-tr?e, yet when you taste a perfect and delicate Apple, be assured both the stocke and graft were of the best choise, and so such kernells of best reckoning. When you haue then a competent quantitie of such kernells, you shall take certaine large pots, in the fashion of milke-boules, all full of hoales in the bottome, through which the raine and superfluous moysture may auoyde, and either in the Months of March or Nouember fill the pots three parts full of the finest, blackest, and richest mould you can get, then lay your kernells vpon the earth, about foure fingars one from another, so many as the vessell can conueniently containe, and then with a siue sift vpon them other fine moulds almost thr?e fingars thicke, and so let them rest, filling so many pots or vessells as shall serue to receiue your quantitie of kernells of all sorts. Now if any man desire to know my reason why I rather desire to set my kernells rather in vessells then in beds of earth, my answere is, that I haue often found it in mine experience, that the kernell of Apples, Peares, Quinces, and such like, are such a tender and dainty s?ede that it is great oddes but the wormes will deuoure and consume them before they sprout, who naturally delight in such s?edes, which these vessels onely doe preuent: but to proceede.

After your kernells are sprouted vp and growne to be at least seauen or eight inches high, you shall then within your nursery digge vp a border about two foote and an halfe broad, more then a foote d?epe, and of such conuenient length as may receiue all your young plants, and hauing made the mould fine and rich with Manure, you shall then with your whole hand gripe as much of the earth that is about the plant as you can conueniently hould, and so take both the plant and the mould out of the vessell, and replant it in the new drest border: and you shall thus doe plant after plant, till you haue set euery one, and made them firme and fast in the new mould: wherein you are to obserue these two principles, first that you place them at least fiue foote one from another, and secondly, that such kernells as you set in your vessels in March, that you replant them in borders of earth in Nouember following, and such as you set in Nouember to replant in March following, and being so replanted to suffer them to grow till they be able to beare grafts, during which time you shall diligently obserue, that if any of them chance to put forth any superfluous branches or cyons, which may hinder the growth of the body of the plant, that you carefully cut them away, that thereby it may be the sooner inabled to beare a graft: for it is euer to be intended that whatsoeuer proc?edeth from kernells are onely to be preserued for stockes to graft on, and for no other purpose.

Now for the stones of Plumbes, & other stone fruit, you shall vnderstand that they be of two kindes, one simple and of themselues, as the Rye-plumbe, Wheate-plumbe, Damson, Prune-plumbe, Horse-clogge, Cherry, and such like, so that from the kernells of them issueth tr?es of like nature and goodnesse: the other compounded or grafted plumbes, as the Abricot, Pescod, Peach, Damaske, Verdochyo, Emperiall, and such like, from whose kernells issueth no other tr?es but such as the stockes were vpon which they were grafted. Now, for the manner of setting the first, which are simple and vncompounded, you shall digge vp a large bedde of rich and good earth a month or more before March or Nouember, and hauing made the mould as fine as is possible, you shall flat-wise thrust euery stone, a foote one from another, more then thr?e fingars into the mould, and then with a little small rake, made for the purpose, rake the bedde ouer and close vp the holes, and so let them rest till they be of a y?eres groath, at which time you shall replant them into seuerall borders, as you did your Apple-tr?e plants and others.

Now for the kernells of your compounded or grafted Plumbes, you shall both set them in beddes and replant them into seuerall borders, in the same manner as you did the other kernells of Plumbes, onely you shall for the space of eight and forty houres before you set them st?epe them in new milke, forasmuch as the stones of them are more hard, and with greater difficulty open and sprout in the earth, then any other stone whatsoeuer: and thus hauing furnished your Nursery of all sorts of fruits and stockes, you shall when they come to full age and bignesse graft them in such order as shalbe hereafter declared.

As you are to furnish your nursery with all sorts of kernells and stones, for the br?eding of stockes where on to graft the daintiest fruits you can compasse, so shall you also plant therein the cyons and branches of the best fruit tr?es: which cyons and branches doe bring forthe the same fruit which the tr?es doe from whence they are taken, and by that meanes your nursery shall euer afford you perfect tr?es, wherewith either to furnish your owne grounds, or to pleasure your neighbours. And herein by the way you shall vnderstand that some tr?es are more fit to be set then to be sowne, as namely, the Seruice-tr?e, the Medler, the Filbert and such like. Now for the Seruice-tr?e, h?e is not at all to be grafted, but set in this wise: take of the bastard cyons such as be somewhat bigger then a mans thumbe, and cutting away the branches thereof, set it in a fine loose moulde, at least a foote d?epe, and it will prosper exceedingly, yet the true nature of this tr?e is not to be remoued, and therefore it is conuenient that it be planted where it should euer continue: in like manner to the Seruice-tree, so you shall plant the bastard cyons of the Medlar-tr?e either in March or October, and at the waine of the moone.

Now for the Filbert, or large Hassell-nut, you shall take the smallest cyons or wands, such as are not aboue two y?eres groath, being full of short heauie twigges, and grow from the roote of the maine tr?e, and set them in a loose mould, a foote d?epe, without pruning or cutting away any of the branches, and they will prosper to your contentment. Now for all sorts of Plumbe-tr?es, Apple-tr?es or other fruit-tr?es which are not grafted, if you take the young cyons which grow from the rootes cleane from the rootes, and plant them either in the spring, or fall, in a fresh and fine mould, they will not onely prosper, but bring forth fruit of like nature and qualitie to the tr?es from whence they were taken.

Now for your grafted fruit, as namely, Apples, Plumbes, Cherryes, Mulberries, Quinces, and such like, the cyons also and branches of them also will take roote and bring forth fruit of the same kinde that the tr?es did from whence they were taken: but those cyons or branches must euer be chosen from the vpper parts of the tr?es, betwixt the feast of all-Saints and Christmas, they must be bigger then a mans finger, smooth, straight, and without twigges: you shall with a sharpe chissell cut them from the body or armes of the tr?e with such care, that by no meanes you raise vp the barke, and then with a little yealow waxe couer the place from whence you cut the cyon: then hauing digged and dunged the earth well where you intend to plant them, and made the mould easie, you shall with an Iron, as bigge as your plant, make a hoale a foote d?epe or better, and then put in your cyon and with it a few Oates, long st?ept in water, and so fixe it firme in the mould, and if after it beginneth to put forth you perceiue any young cyons to put forth from the root thereof, you shall immediatly cut them off, & either cast them away or plant them in other places, for to suffer them to grow may br?ede much hurt to the young tr?es. Now where as these cyons thus planted are for the most part small and weake, so that the smallest breath of winde doth shake and hurt their rootes, it shalbe good to pricke strong stakes by them, to which, fastning the young plant with a soft hay rope it may the better be defended from stormes and tempests.

Next to these fruit-tr?es, you shall vnderstand that your bush-tr?es, as Barberryes, Gooseberryes, or Feberryes, Raspberryes, and such like, will also grow vpon cyons, without rootes, being cut from their maine rootes in Nouember, & so planted in a new fresh mould. And here by the way I am to giue you this note or caueat, that if at any time you finde any of these cyons which you haue planted not to grow and flourish according to your desire, but that you finde a certaine mislike or consumption in the plant, you shall then immediatly with a sharpe knife cut the plant off slope-wise vpward, about three fingars from the ground, and so let it rest till the next spring, at which time you shall beholde new cyons issue from the roote, which will be without sicknesse or imperfection; and from the vertue of this experiment I imagine the gardners of antient time found out the meanes to get young cyons from olde Mulberry-tr?es, which they doe in this manner: first, you must take some of the greatest armes of the Mulberry-tr?e about the midst of Nouember, and with a sharpe sawe to sawe them into bigge truncheons, about fiuet?ene inches long, and then digging a trench in principall good earth, of such depth that you may couer the truncheons, being set vp on end, with Manure and fine mould, each truncheon being a foote one from another, and couerd more then foure fingars aboue the wood, not fayling to water them whensoeuer n?ede shall require, and to preserue them from w?eds and filthinesse, within lesse then a y?eres space you shall behold those truncheons to put forth young cyons, which as soone as they come to any groath and be twigged, then you may cut them from the stockes, and transplant them where you please, onely the truncheons you shall suffer to remaine still, and cherish them with fresh dunge, and they will put forth many moe cyons, both to furnish your selfe and your friends. And thus much for the planting and setting of cyons or branches.

As soone as your nursery is thus amply furnished of all sorts of stockes, proc?eding from kernells and of all sorts of tr?es proc?eding from cyons, branches or vndergrowings, and that through strength of y?eres they are growne to sufficient abilitie to receiue grafts, which is to be intended that they must be at the least sixe or eight inches in compasse, for although lesse many times both doth and may receiue grafts, yet they are full of debilitie and danger, and promise no assurance to the worke-mans labour, you shall then beginne to graft your stockes with such fruits as from art and experience are m?ete to be conioyned together, as thus: you shall graft Apples vpon Apples, as the Pippin vpon the great Costard, the Peare-maine vpon the Ienetting, and the Apple-Iohn or blacke annet vpon the Pomewater or Crab-tr?e: to conclude, any Apple-stocke, Crab-tree, or wilding, is good to graft Apples vpon, but the best is best worthy. So for Peares, you shall graft them vpon Peare stockes, Quinces vpon Quinces or Crab-tr?es, and not according to the opinion of the frenchman, vpon white thorne or willow, the Medlar vpon the Seruice-tr?e, and the Seruice vpon the Medlar, also Cherryes vpon Cherryes, & Plumbes vpon Plumbes, as the greater Abricots vpon the lesser Abricots, the Peach, the Figge, or the Damson-tr?e, and to speake generally without wasting more paper, or making a long circumstance to slender purpose, the Damson-tr?e is the onely principall best stocke whereupon to graft any kinde of Plumbe or stone fruit whatsoeuer.

After you haue both your stockes ready, and know which grafts to ioyne with which stockes, you shall then learne to cut and chuse your grafts in this manner: looke from what tr?e you desire to take your grafts, you shall goe vnto the very principall branches thereof, and looke vp to the vpper ends, and those which you finde to be fairest, smoothest, and fullest of sappe, hauing the little knots, budds, or eyes, standing close and thicke together, are the best and most perfect, especially if they grow vpon the East side of the tr?e, whereon the Sunne first looketh; these you shall cut from the tr?e in such sort that they may haue at least thr?e fingars of the olde woode ioyning to the young branch, which you shall know both by the colour of the barke, as also by a little round seame which maketh as it were a distinction betwixt the seuerall growths. Now you shall euer, as n?ere as you can, chuse your grafts from a young tr?e, and not from an olde, and from the tops of the principall branches, and not from the midst of the tr?e, or any other superfluous arme or cyon; now if after you haue got your grafts you haue many dayes Iourneys to carry them, you shall fould them in a few fresh mouldes, and binde them about with hay, and hay ropes, and so carry them all day, and in the night bury them all ouer in the ground and they will containe their goodnesse for a long season.

Hauing thus prepared your grafts, you shall then beginne to graft, which worke you shall vnderstand may be done in euery month of the y?ere, except Nouember and October, but the best is to beginne about Christmas for all earely and forward fruit, and for the other, to stay till March: now hauing all your implements and necessaryes about you, fit for the Grafting, you shall first take your grafts, of what sort soeuer they be, and hauing cut the neather ends of them round and smoth without raysing of the barke, you shall then with a sharp knife, made in the proportion of a great pen-knife slice downe each side of the grafts, from the seame or knot which parts the olde woode from the new, euen to the neather end, making it flat and thinne, cheifely in the lowest part, hauing onely a regardfull eye vnto the pith of the graft, which you may by no meanes cut or touch, and when you haue thus trimmed a couple of grafts, for moe I doe by no meanes alow vnto one stocke, although sundry other skilfull workmen in this Art alow to the least stocke two grafts, to the indifferent great thr?e, and to the greatest of all foure, yet I affirme two are sufficiently inough for any stocke whatsoeuer, and albeit they are a little the longer in couering the head, yet after they haue couered it the tr?e prospereth more in one y?ere then that which contayneth foure grafts shall doe in two, because they cannot haue sap inough to maintaine them, which is the reason that tr?es for want of prosperitie grow crooked and deformed: but to my purpose. When you haue made your grafts ready, you shall then take a fine thinne sawe, whose t?eth shalbe filed sharpe and euen, and with it cut the stocke round off within lesse then a foote of the ground, but if the stocke be as bigge as a mans arme, then you may cut it off two or thr?e foote from the ground, and so consequently the bigger it is the higher you may cut it, and the lesser the nearer vnto the earth: as soone as you haue sawne off the vpper part of the stocke, you shall then take a fine sharpe chissell, somewhat broader then the stocke, and setting it euen vpon the midst of the head of the stocke somewhat wide of the pith, then with a mallet of woode you shall stricke it in and cleaue the stocke, at least foure inches d?epe, then putting in a fine little wedge of Iron, which may k?epe open the cleft, you shall take one of your grafts and looke which side of it you intend to place inward, and that side you shall cut much thinner then the out side, with a most h?edfull circumspection that by no meanes you loosen or rayse vp the barke of the graft, cheifly on the out side, then you shall take the graft, and wetting it in your mouth place it in one side of the cleft of the stocke, and regard that the very knot or seame which goes about the graft, parting the olde woode from the new, do rest directly vpon the head of the stocke, and that the out side of the graft doe agr?e directly with the out side of the stocke, ioyning barke vnto barke, and sappe vnto sappe, so euen, so smooth, and so close, that no ioyners worke may be discerned to ioyne more arteficially: which done, vpon the other side of the stocke, in the other cleft, you shall place your other graft, with full as much care, diligence, and euery other obseruation: when both your grafts are thus orderly and arteficially placed, you shall then by setting the haft of your chissell against the stocke, with all lenitie and gentlenesse, draw forth your wedge, in such sort that you doe not displace or alter your grafts, and when your wedge is forth you shall then looke vpon your grafts, and if you perceiue that the stocke doe pinch or squize them, which you may discerne both by the straitnesse and bending of the outmost barke, you shall then make a little wedge of some gr?ene sappy woode, and driuing it into the cleft, ease your grafts, cutting that wedge close to the stocke. When you haue thus made both your grafts perfect, you shall then take the barke of either Apple-tr?e, Crab-tr?e or Willow-tr?e, and with that barke couer the head of the stocke so close that no wet or other annoyance may get betwixt it and the stocke, then you shall take a conuenient quantitie of clay, which ind?ede would be of a binding mingled earth, and tempering it well, either with mosse or hay, lay it vpon the barke, and daube all the head of the stocke, euen as low as the bottome of the grafts, more then an inch thicke, so firme, close, and smooth as may be, which done, couer all that clay ouer with soft mosse, and that mosse with some ragges of wollen cloath, which being gently bound about with the inward barkes of Willow, or Osyar, let the graft rest to the pleasure of the highest: and this is called grafting in the cleft.

Now there be certaine obseruations or caueats to be respected in grafting, which I may not neglect: as first, in trimming and preparing your grafts for the stocke: if the grafts be either of Cherry, or Plumbe, you shall not cut them so thinne as the grafts of Apples, Quinces, or Medlars, because they haue a much larger and rounder pith, which by no meanes must be toucht but fortefied and preserued, onely to the neather end you may cut them as thinne as is possible, the pith onely preserued.

Secondly, you shall into your greatest stockes put your greatest grafts, and into your least, the least, that there may be an equall strength and conformitie in their coniunction.

Thirdly, if at any time you be inforced to graft vpon an olde tr?e, that is great and large, then you shall not graft into the body of that tr?e, because it is impossible to k?epe it from putrifaction and rotting before the grafts can couer the head, but you shall chuse out some of the principall armes or branches, which are much more slender, and graft them, as is before shewed, omitting not dayly to cut away all cyons, armes, branches, or superfluous sprigs which shall grow vnder those branches which you haue newly grafted: but if there be no branch, small or tender inough to graft in, then you shall cut away all the maine branches from the stocke, and couering the head with clay and mosse, let it rest, and within thr?e or foure y?eres it will put forth new cyons, which will be fit to graft vpon.

Fourthly, if when you either sawe off the top of your stocke, or else cleaue the head, you either raise vp the barke or cleaue the stocke too d?epe, you shall then sawe the stocke againe, with a little more carefulnesse, so much lower as your first errour had committed a fault.

Fiftly, you shall from time to time looke to the binding of the heads of your stockes, in so much that if either the clay doe shrinke away or the other couerings doe losen, by which defects ayre, or wet, may get into the incission, you shall presently with all sp?ede amend and repaire it.

Lastly, if you graft in any open place where cattell doe graze, you shall not then forget as soone as you haue finisht your worke to bush or hedge in your graft, that it may be defended from any such negligent annoyance. And thus much for this ordinary manner of grafting, which although it be generall and publike to most men that knoweth any thing in this art, yet is it not inferiour, but the principallest and surest of all other.

Although for certainty, vse, and commodity, the manner of grafting already prescribed is of sufficiency inough to satisfie any constant or reasonable vnderstanding, yet for nouelty sake, to which our nation is infinitly addicted, and to satisfie the curious, who thinke their iudgements disparaged if they heare any authorised traueller talke of the things which they haue not practised, I will proc?ede to some other more quaint manners of grafting, and the rather because they are not altogether vnnecessary, hauing both certainety in the worke, pleasure in the vse, and benefit in the serious imploying of those howers which else might challenge the title of idlenesse, besides they are very well agr?eing with the soyles and fruits of this Empyre of great Brittaine and the vnderstandings of the people, for whose seruice or benefit, I onely vndergoe my trauell.

You shall vnderstand therefore, that there is another way to graft, which is called grafting betw?ene the barke and tree, and it is to be put in vse about the latter end of February, at such time as the sappe beginnes to enter into the tr?es: and the stockes most fit for this manner of grafting are those which are oldest and greatest, whose graine being rough and vneuen, either through shaking or twinding, it is a thing almost impossible to make it cleaue in any good fashion, so that in such a case it is meete that the grafter exercise this way of grafting betwixt the barke and the tr?e, the manner whereof is thus.

First, you shall dresse your grafts in such sort as was before discribed when you grafted in the cleft, onely they shall not be so long from the knot or seame downeward by an inch or more, neither so thicke, but as thinne as may be, the pith onely preserued, and at the neather end of all you shall cut away the barke on both sides, making that end smaller and narrower then it is at the ioynt or seame, then sawing off the head of the stocke, you shall with a sharpe knife pare the head round about, smooth and plaine, making the barke so euen as may be, that the barke of your grafts and it may ioyne like one body, then take a fine narrow chissell, not exc?eding sharpe, but somewhat rebated, and thrust it hard downe betwixt the barke and the tr?e, somewhat more then two inches, according to the iust length of your graft, and then gently thrust the graft downe into the same place, euen close vnto the ioynt, hauing great care that the ioynt rest firme and constant vpon the head of the stocke, and thus you shall put into one stocke not aboue thr?e grafts at the most, how euer either other mens practise, or your owne reading doe perswade you to the contrary. After your grafts are fixt and placed, you shall then couer the head with barke, clay, and mosse, as hath b?ene formerly shewed: also you shall fasten about it some bushes of thorne, or sharpe whinnes, which may defend and k?epe it from the annoyance of Pye-annats, and such like great birds.

There is another way of grafting, which is called grafting in the scutchion, which howsoeuer it is est?emed, yet is it troublesome, incertaine, and to small purpose: the season for it is in summer, from May till August, at what time tr?es are fullest of sappe and fullest of leaues, and the manner is thus: take the highest and the principallest branches of the toppe of the tr?e you would haue grafted, and without cutting it from the olde woode chuse the best eye and budding place of the cyon, then take another such like eye or budde, being great and full, and first cut off the leafe hard by the budde, then hollow it with your knife the length of a quarter of an inch beneath the budde, round about the barke, close to the sappe, both aboue and below, then slit it downe twice so much wide of the budde, and then with a small sharpe chissell raise vp the scutchion, with not onely the budde in the midst but euen all the sappe likewise, wherein you shall first raise that side which is next you, and then taking the scutchion betw?ene your fingars, raise it gently vp without breaking or brusing, and in taking it off hould it hard vnto the woode, to the end the sappe of the budde may abide in the scutchion, for if it depart from the barke and cleaue to the woode, your labour is lost, this done you shall take another like cyon, and hauing taken off the barke from it, place it in the others place, and in taking off this barke you must be carfull that you cut not the woode, but the barke onely, and this done you shall couer it all ouer with redde waxe, or some such glutenous matter; as for the binding of it with hempe and such trumpery it is vtterly dissalowed of all good grafters: this manner of grafting may be put in practise vpon all manner of cyons, from the bignesse of a mans little fingar to the bignesse of a slender arme.

Not much vnlike vnto this, is the grafting with the Leafe, and of like worth, the art whereof is thus: any time betwixt midst May, vntill the midst of September, you shall chuse, from the toppe of the sunne-side of the tr?e, the most principall young cyon you can s?e, whose barke is smoothest, whose leaues are greatest, and whose sappe is fullest, then cutting it from the tr?e note the principall leafe thereof, and cut away from it all the woode more then about an inch of each side of the leafe, then cutting away the vndermost part of the barke with your knife, take p?ece meale from the barke all the woode and sappe, saue onely that little part of woode and sappe which f?edeth the leafe, which in any wise must be left behind, so that the graft will carry this figure.

Then goe to the body, arme, or branch of that tr?e which you intend to graft, which is to be presupposed must euer haue a smooth and tender barke, and with a very sharpe knife slit the barke, two slits at least, two inches long a p?ece, and about halfe an inch or more distance betw?ene the two slits: then make another slit crosse-wise ouerthwart, from long slit to long slit, the figure whereof will be thus:

Then with your knife raise the barke gently from the tr?e, without breaking, cracking, or brusing: then take your graft, and putting it vnder the barke lay it flat vnto the sappe of the tr?e, so as that little sappe which is left in the leafe, may without impediment cleaue to the sappe of the tr?e, then lay downe the barke close againe and couer the graft, and with a little vntwound hempe, or a soft wollen list, binde downe the barke close to the graft, and then couer all the incisions you haue made with greene waxe: by this manner of grafting you may haue vpon one tr?e sundry fruits, as from one Apple-tree, both Pippins, Peare-maines, Russettings and such like, nay, you may haue vpon one tree, ripe fruit all summer long, as Ienettings from one branch, Cislings from another, Wibourns from another, Costards and Qu?ene-Apples from others, and Pippens and Russettings, from others, which bringeth both delight to the eye, and admiration to the sence, and yet I would not haue you imagine that this kinde of grafting doth onely worke this effect, for as before I shewed you, if you graft in the cleft sundry fruits vpon sundry armes or bowes, you shall likewise haue proc?eding from them sundry sorts of fruits, as either Apples, Plumbes, Peares or any other kind, according to your composition and industry; as at this day we may dayly s?e in many great mens Orchards.

There is yet another manner of grafting, and it is of all other especially vsed much in Italy, and yet not any thing disagr?eable with our climate, and that is to graft on the small cyons which are on the toppes of fruit tr?es, surely an experience that carryeth in it both dificulty and wonder, yet being put to approbation is no lesse certaine then any of the other, the manner whereof is thus: you shall first after you haue chosen such and so many grafts as you doe intend to graft, and trimd them in the same manner as you haue b?ene taught formerly for grafting within the cleft, you shall then mount vp into the toppe of the tr?e, vpon which you meane to graft, and there make choise of the highest and most principallest cyons that you can perceiue to grow from the tr?e, then laying the graft, and the cyon vpon which you are to graft, together, s?e that they be both of one bignesse and roundnesse: then with your grafting knife cut the cyon off betw?ene the olde woode and the new, and cleaue it downe an inch and an halfe, or two inches at the most: then put in your graft and when it is in, s?e that the barke of the graft both aboue and below, that is, vpon both sides, doe ioyne close, euen, and firme with the barke of the branch or cyon, and then by foulding a little soft towe about it, k?epe them close together, whilst with clay, mosse, and the in-most barke of Osyars you lappe them about to defend them from ayre, winde, and tempests. And herein you shall obserue to make your graft as short as may be, for the shortest are best, as the graft which hath not aboue two or thr?e knots, or buddes, and no more. You may, if you please, with this manner of grafting graft vpon euery seuerall cyon, a seuerall fruit, and so haue from one tr?e many fruits, as in case of grafting with the leafe, and that with much more sp?ede, by as much as a well-growne graft is more forward and able then a weake tender leafe. And in these seuerall wayes already declared, consisteth the whole Art and substance of Grafting: from whence albeit many curious braines may, from preuaricating trickes, beget showes of other fashions, yet when true iudgement shall looke vpon their workes, he shall euer finde some one of these experiments the ground and substance of all their labours, without which they are able to doe nothing that shall turne to an assured commoditie.

Now when you haue made your selfe perfect in the sowing, setting, planting and grafting of tr?es, you shall then learne to know the effects, wonders, and strange issues which doe proc?ede from many quaint motions and helpes in grafting, as thus: if you will haue Peaches, Cherryes, Apples, Quinces, Medlars, Damsons, or any Plumbe whatsoeuer, to ripen earely, as at the least two months before the ordinary time, and to continue at least a month longer then the accustomed course, you shall then graft them vpon a Mulberry stocke: and if you will haue the fruit to tast like spice, with a certaine delicate perfume, you shall boyle Honey, the powder of Cloues and Soaxe together, and being cold annoynt the grafts there-with before you put them into the cleft, if you graft Apples, Peares, or any fruit vpon a Figge-tree stocke, they will beare fruit without blooming: if you take an Apple graft, & a Peare graft, of like bignesse, and hauing clouen them, ioyne them as one body in grafting, the fruit they bring forth will be halfe Apple and halfe Peare, and so likewise of all other fruits which are of contrary tastes and natures: if you graft any fruit-tree, or other tr?e, vpon the Holly or vpon the Cypresse, they will be greene, and k?epe their leaues the whole y?ere, albeit the winter be neuer so bitter.

If you graft either Peach, Plumbe, or any stone-fruit vpon a Willow stocke, the fruit which commeth of them will be without stones.

If you will change the colour of any fruit, you shall boare a hole slope-wise with a large auger into the body of the tr?e, euen vnto the pith, and then if you will haue the fruit yealow you shal fill the hole with Saferne dissolued in water: if you will haue it redde, then with Saunders, and of any other colour you please, and then stoppe the hole vp close, and couer it with red or yealow waxe: also if you mixe the coulour with any spice or perfume, the fruit will take a rellish or tast of the same: many other such like conceits and experiments are practised amongst men of this Art, but sith they more concerne the curious, then the wise, I am not so carefull to bestow my labour in giuing more substantiall satisfaction, knowing curiosity loues that best which proc?edes from their most paine, and am content to referre their knowledge to the searching of those bookes which haue onely strangnesse for their subiect, resolued that this I haue written is fully sufficient for the plaine English husbandman.

As soone as your s?edes, or sets, haue brought forth plants, those plants, through time, made able, and haue receiued grafts, and those grafts haue couered the heads of the stockes and put forth goodly branches, you shall then take them vp, and replant them, in those seuerall places of your Orchard which before is appointed, and is intended to be prepared, both by dungging, digging, and euery orderly labour, to receiue euery seuerall fruit. And herein you shall vnderstand, that as the best times for grafting are euery month and at the change of the moone, so the best times for replanting, are Nouember and March onely, vnlesse the ground be cold and moist and then Ianuary, or February must be the soonest all wayes, excepted that you doe not replant in the time of frost, for that is most vnholsome.

Now when you will take vp your tr?es which you intend to replant in your Orchard, you shall first with a spade bare all the maine branches of the roote, and so by degr?es digge and loosen the earth from the roote, in such sort that you may with your owne strength raise the young tr?e from the ground, which done, you shall not, according to the fashion of Fraunce, dismember, or disroabe the tr?e of his beauties, that is to say, to cut off all his vpper branches and armes, but you shall diligently preserue them: for I haue s?ene a tr?e thus replanted after the fall of the leafe to bring forth fruit in the summer following: but if the tr?e you replant be olde then it is good to cut off the maine branches with in a foote of the stocke, least the sappe running vpward, and so forsaking the roote too sodainely doe kill the whole tr?e.

When you haue taken your tr?e vp, you shall obserue how, and in what manner, it stoode, that is, which side was vpon the South and receiued most comfort from the sunne, and which side was from it and receiued most shadow and bleaknesse, and in the same sort as it then stoode, so shall you replant it againe: this done you shall with a sharpe cutting-knife, cut off all the maine rootes, within halfe a foote of the tr?e, onely the small thriddes or twist-rootes you shall not cut at all: then bringing the plant into your Orchard, you shall make a round hole in that place where you intend to set your tr?e and this hole shalbe at least foure foote ouerthwart euery way, and at least two foote d?epe, then shall you fill vp the hole againe, fift?ene inches d?epe, with the finest blacke mould, tempered with Oxe dunge that you can get, so that then the hole shalbe but nine inches d?epe, then you shall take your tr?e and place it vpon that earth, hauing care to open euery seuerall branch and thrid of the roote, & so to place them that they may all looke downe into the earth, and not any of them to looke backe and turne vpward: then shall you take of the earth from whence your tr?e was taken, and tempering it with a fourth part of Oxe dunge and slekt sope-asshes couer all the roote of your tr?e firmely and strongly: then with gr?ene soddes, cut and ioyned arteficially together, so sodde the place that the hole may hardly be discerned. Lastly take a strong stake, and driuing it hard into the ground neare vnto the new planted tr?e, with either a soft hay rope, the broad barke of Willow, or some such like vnfretting band, tye the tr?e to the stake, and it will defend it from the rage of winde and tempests, which should they but shake or trouble the roote, being new planted, it were inough to confound and spoyle the tr?e for euer.

Now, although I haue vnder the title and demonstration of replanting one tr?e giuen you a generall instruction for the replanting of all tr?es whatsoeuer, yet, for as much as some are not of that strength and hardnesse to indure so much as some others will, therefore you shal take these considerations by the way, to fortefie your knowledge with.

First, you shall vnderstand that all your dainty and tender grafted Plumbes, and fruits, as Abricots, Peaches, Damaske-Plumbes, Verdochyos, Pescods, Emperialls, and diuers such like, together with Orrenges, Cytrons, Almonds, Oliues, and others, which ind?ede are not familiar with our soyles, as being nearer neighbours to the sunne, doe delight in a warme, fat, earth, being somewhat sandy, or such a clay whose coldnesse by Manure is corrected, and therefore here with vs in the replanting of them you cannot bestow too much cost vpon the mould: as for the Damson, and all our naturall english Plumbes, they loue a fat, cold, earth, so that in the replanting of them if you shall lay too much dunge vnto their roote, you shall through the aboundant heate, doe great hurt vnto the tr?e. The cherry delighteth in any clay, so that vpon such soyle you may vse lesse Manure, but vpon the contrary you cannot lay too much. The Medlar est?emeth all earths alike, and therefore whether it be Manured or no it skilles not, sunne and shadow, wet and drinesse, being all of one force or efficacy. The Peare and Apple-tr?e delights in a strong mixt soyle, and therfore indureth Manure kindly, so doth also the Quince and Warden: lastly the Filbert, the Hasell, and the Chesnut, loue cold, leane, moist, and sandy earths, in so much that there is no greater enimy vnto them then a rich soyle: so that in replanting of them you must euer s?eke rather to correct then increase fertillity.

You shall also vnderstand that all such fruit-tr?es as you doe plant against the walles of your Orchard you shall not suffer to grow as of themselues, round, and from the wall, but at the times of pruning and dressing of them you shall as it were plash them, and spread them against the wall, foulding the armes in loopes of leather, and nayling them vnto the wall: and to that end you shall place them of such a fit distance one from another, that they may at pleasure spread and mount, without interruption: the profit whereof is at this day seene almost in euery great mans Orchard: and although I haue but onely appointed vnto the wall the most quaint fruits of forraine nations; yet there is no fruit of our owne, but if it be so ordered it will prosper and bring forth his fruit better and in greater abundance. And thus much for the replanting of tr?es and furnishing of a well proportioned Orchard.

Sith after all the labour spent of ingendring by s?ede, of fortefying and inabling by planting, and of multiplying by grafting it is to little or no purpose if the tr?es be not maintained and preserued by dressing, dungging and proyning, I will therefore in this place shew you what belongs to that office or duty, and first, for the dressing of trees: you shall vnderstand that it containeth all whatsoeuer is m?ete for the good estate of the tr?e, as first, after your tr?e is planted, or replanted, if the season shall fall out hot, dry, and parching, insomuch that the moisture of the earth is sucked out by the atraction of the Sunne, and so the tr?e wanteth the nutriment of moisture, in this case you shall not omit euery morning before the rising of the sunne, and euery euening after the set of the sunne, with a great watring-pot filled with water, to water & bath the rootes of the tr?es, if they be young tr?es, and newly planted, or replanted, but not otherwise: for if the tr?es be olde, and of long growth, then you shall saue that labour, and onely to such olde tr?es you shall about the midst of Nouember, with a spade, digge away the earth from the vpper part of the rootes and lay them bare vntill it be midde-March, and then mingling such earth as is most agr?eable with the fruit and Oxe-dunge and sope-ashes together, so couer them againe, and tread the earth close about them: as for the vncouering of your tr?es in summer I doe not hold it good, because the reflection of the sunne is somewhat too violent and dryeth the roote, from whence at that time the sappe naturally is gone: you shall also euery spring and fall of the leafe clense your fruit tr?es from mosse, which proc?eding from a cold and cankerous moisture, br?edeth dislike, and barrainenesse in tr?es: this mosse you must take off with the backe of an olde knife and leaue the barke smooth, plaine, and vnraced: also if you shall dunge such tr?es with the dunge of Swine, it is a ready way to destroy the mosse.

After you haue drest and trimmed your tr?es, you shall then proyne them, which is to cut away all those superfluous branches, armes, or cyons, which being either barraine, bruised or misplaced, doe like drones, steale-away that nutriment which should maintaine the better deseruing sinewes, and you shall vnderstand that the best time for proyning of tr?es, is in March and Aprill, at which time the sappe assending vpward, causeth the tr?es to budde: the branches you shall cut away are all such as shall grow out of the stocke vnderneath the place grafted, or all such as by the shaking of tempests shall grow in a disorderly and ill fashioned crookednesse, or any other, that out of a well tempered iudgement shall s?eme superfluous and burdensome to the stocke from whence it springs, also such as haue by disorder b?ene brooken, or maimed, and all these you shall cut away with a hooke knife, close by the tr?e, vnlesse you haue occasion by some misfortune to cut away some of the maine and great armes of the tr?e, and then you shall not vse your knife for feare of tearing the barke, but taking your sawe you shall sawe off those great armes close by the tr?e, neither shall you sawe them off downeward but vpward, least the waight of the arme breake the barke from the body: And herein you shall also vnderstand that for as much as the mischances which beget these dismembrings doe happen at the latter end of Summer, in the gathering of the fruit, and that it is not fit such maymed and broken boughes hang vpon the tr?e till the Spring, therefore you shall cut them off in the Winter time, but not close to the tr?e by almost a foote, and so letting them rest vntill the spring, at that time cut them off close by the tr?e. Now if you finde the superfluitie of branches which annoy your tr?es to be onely small cyons, springing from the rootes of the tr?es, as it often hapneth with all sorts of Plumbe-tr?es, Cherry-tr?es, Nut-tr?es, and such like, then you shall in the winter, bare the rootes of those tr?es, and cut off those cyons close by the roote: but if your tr?es be broused or eaten by tame-Deare, Goates, Sh?epe, Kine, Oxen, or such like, then there is no help for such a misfortune but onely to cut off the whole head and graft the stocke anew.

Next to the proyning of tr?es, is the preseruing, phisicking, and curing of the diseases of tr?es: to which they are subiect as well as our naturall bodyes: and first of all, there is a disease called Barke-bound, which is when the barke, through a mislike and leperous drynesse, bindeth in the tr?e with such straitnesse that the sappe being denied passage the body growes into a consumption: it is in nature like vnto that disease which in beasts is called hide-bound, and the cure is thus: at the beginning of March take a sharpe knife, and from the toppe of the body of the tr?e, to the very roote, draw downe certaine slits, or incissions, cleane through the barke, vnto the very sappe of the tr?e, round about the tr?e, & then with the backe of your knife open those slits and annoint them all through with Tarre, and in short space it will giue libertie vnto the tr?e to encrease & grow: this disease commeth by the rubbing of cattell against the tr?e, especially Swine, who are very poyson vnto all plants.

There is another disease in fruit-tr?es, called the Gall, and it eateth and consumeth the barke quit away, and so in time kills the tr?e: the cure is to cut and open the barke which you s?e infected, and with a chissell to take away all that is foule and putrefied, and then to clappe Oxe dunge vpon the place, and it will helpe it, and this must be done euer in winter.

The Canker in fruit tr?es is the consumption both of the barke and the body, & it commeth either by the dropping of tr?es one vpon another, or else when some hollow places of the tr?e retaineth raine water in them, which fretting through the barke, poysoneth the tr?e: the cure is to cut away all such boughes as by dropping br?ede the euill, and if the hollow places cannot be smooth and made euen, then to stoppe them with clay, waxe, and sope-ashes mixt together.

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