The English improver improved, or, The svrvey of hvsbandry svrveyed discovering the improueableness of all lands some to be under a double and treble, others under a five or six fould, and many under a tenn fould, yea, some under a twenty fould improvement / by Walter Blith ... ; all clearely demonstrated from principles of reason, ingenuity, and late but most real experiences and held forth at an inconsiderable charge to the profits accrewing thereby, under six peeces of improvement ...

To the Honorable the Souldiery of these Nations of England, Scotland, & Ireland.

Gent. Comm••nders or Souldiers.

IT may be thought strange to direct an Epistle of this nature to you, as conceived by most, least capable of being Instru∣mentall of advancing the common good in this nature; yet knowing strange things are wrought by contraries, and finding the best husbands (through my observance) among those who have been least conversant therein, have not the least hopes of you; yet from a Principle of charity too, lest that your learning your fingers to fight, and discontinuance of your call••ings, might difuse your bodies and minds so from labour, as to discourage you from your callings, have thought fit to let you know, You also may be very capable to doe good service to your present Gene∣ration in this design: And though many say you are more likely to lengthen cut the War to prevent Improvements, I am of better hope, and sure, that the Armies late progresses have manifested the contrary, yet I shall humbly take the boldness to press your speeding as full an ••nd thereto as you are able, both for your own good, and these Reasons.

1 Because of the gooness and welcomness of a Calm after a Storm, no less will be a setled Peace after so great a War, and a little breathing will recover strength and spirits.

2 Because you need not fear want of good Imployment afterward: This piece will open many doores for that, and I am confident Activity and Ingenuity will much inlarge our Quarters, and make this Nation Rehoboth, and with good husbandry indeed would more comfortably maintain hundreds of thousands more than are allready born, and I hope you will learn to hate Idleness wholly, as love Liberty dearly.

3 And lastly, because your selves are interested and possessed of many lands, and those such too as will admit of great Improvement with wise management, and some of them as great as by this discourse is here proposed, and though you may conceive your late lands designed for your pay were highly surveied, and to all advantages to raise them, yet those advantages of Improvement were not to be considered, nor indeed could be discovered by them which understood them not; nor was any of them purchased at any other rate than the present va∣lue to be then set and let to present Tenants; which Lands are as full of vast Improvements as any lands in England: for all which causes I need press no more, but in the honour I bear to a Souldiers name, which God himself hath ho∣noured by stiling himself a Man of War, although I take no pleasure in War, o∣therwise

than in submission to Gods will, and the accomplishment thereof, which is not to be resisted or repined at for the satisfaction of our inclination to ease, peace, or rest; upon this account or any other, I beseech you (so long as necessities command you to it) to preserve alway a good Conscience within; for although hopes of Victory without may carry man through great hardships, yet your peace with God reaches up to heaven, and cannot be scaled with Ladders, nor undermined with batteries, being founded upon a Rock, nor starved with famine, a good Conscience being a continuall Feast. Mr. Fuller in his holy War gives this description of a good souldier, That he that is most couragious in War, is quiet and painfull in Peace, and comfortably betakes himself to his calling: The wiel∣ding of the sword hath not made his Spirit unwieldy for his private Calling. And I having this opportunity to distribute this mean peece unto the World, thought good to offer a Portion amongst you the Honourable Souldiery, as for Edificati∣on how you may turn Improvers too, also humbly to desire your assistance in the work so far as in you lieth, to remove some grievances and Impediments of the Common-wealths advantage, largely discovered in the other Epistles, which brevity causes me to omit, and so no more but humbly pray you study how to serve your present generation in extolling Gods glory, endeavouring the com∣mon-good, and in the interim abandon privacy of spirit. Remember Christs Coun∣sell, view the promised Land, and rejoyce to think of that day when your swords shall be turned inro Ploughshares, your speares into pruning hooks, and Christ only be exalted in the Earth, and you brought back again to sit under your own vines and figtrees, eating the of fruit your own labours, and enjoy one anot••er in Peace; which once accomplished, here is cut out work for you, some to till the Land, and others to feed the Cattell, as from the beginning, so will this be the lasting Improvement. Then will the God of Peace keep them in perfect Peace, whose minds are stayed on him, And Emanuell will break in pieces all that gather against him, which is the Confidence and full Expectance of

Your quondam brother, fellow Souldier, and very Servant Walter Blith.