Systema agriculturæ, the mystery of husbandry discovered treating of the several new and most advantagious ways of tilling, planting, sowing, manuring, ordering, improving of all sorts of gardens, orchards, meadows, pastures, corn-lands, woods & coppices, as also of fruits, corn, grain, pulse, new-hays, cattle, fowl, beasts, bees, silk-worms, &c. : with an account of the several instruments and engines used in this profession : to which is added Kalendarium rusticum, or, The husbandmans monthly directions, also the prognosticks of dearth, scarcity, plenty, sickness, heat, cold, frost, snow, winds, rain, hail, thunder, &c. and Dictionarium rusticum, or, The interpretation of rustick terms, the whole work being of great use and advantage to all that delight in that most noble practice.

SECT. II. Soyls and Manures taken from the Earth.

Whereof there are several sorts; some of so hard and undissolu∣ble a nature, that it is not fit to lay on Lands simply as it is, but after it is burned into Lime, becomes a very excellent Improver of Lands: there are also other sorts of Chalk more unctuous and soluble, which being laid on Lands crude as they are, and let lie till the Frosts and Rain shatter and dissolve the same, prove a ve∣ry considerable advantage to barren Lands; now where any of these Chalks are found, it is good to prove their natures, by laying them on some small portion of Land crude as they are, or by burning them into Lime, if Fewel be plenty, or to half burn them; by which you may experimentally know the true effects and be∣nefits that Subject will yield.

And although Chalk simply of it self either burnt or unburnt, may not prove so advantageous as many have reported, yet is it of very great use to be mixed with Earth and the Dungs of Ani∣mals, by which may be made an admirable, sure, and natural fruit∣ful Composition for almost any sorts of Lands, and raiseth Corn in abaundance.

Liming of Land is of most excellent use, many barren parts of this Nation being thereby reduced into so fertile a condition for bearing most sorts of Grain, that upon Land not worth above

one or two shillings an Acre well husbanded with Lime hath been raised as good Wheat, Barly, white and gray Pease as England yields. English Improver.

Also that by the same means from a Ling, Heath, or Common naturally barren and little worth, hath been raised most gallant Corn, worth five or six pound an Acre. By the same Author.

He also affirms that some men have had and received so much profit upon their Lands by once liming, as hath paid the purchase of their Lands, and that himself had great advance thereby, yet lived twenty miles from Lime, and fetched the same by Waggon so far to lay it on his Lands.

One Author saith twelve or fourteen quarters will Lime an Acre; another saith 160 Bushels: the difference of the Land may require a different proportion.

The most natural Land for Lime is the light and sandy, the next mixt and gravelly; wet and cold gravel not good, cold clay the worst of all.

Also a mixture of Lime, Earth, and Dung together, is a very excellent Compost for Land.

Marle is a very excellent thing, commended of all that either write or practise any thing in Husbandry. There are several kinds of it, some stony, some soft, white, gray, russet, yellow, blew, black, and some red: It is of a cold nature, and saddens Land exceed∣ingly; and very heavy it is, and will go downwards, though not so much as Lime doth. The goodness or badness thereof is not known so much by the colour, as by the Purity and Uncompoun∣dedness of it; for if it will break into bits like a Dye, or smooth like Lead-Oar, without any composition of Sand or Gravel; or if it will slake like Slate-stones, and slake or shatter after a shower of Rain, or being exposed to the Sun or Air, and shortly after turn to dust when it's throughly dry again, and not congeal like tough Clay, question not the fruitfulness of it, notwithstanding the difference of colours, which are no certain signes of the good∣ness of the Marle. As for the Slipperiness, Viscousness, Fattiness, or Oyliness thereof, although it be commonly esteemed a signe of good Marle, yet the best Authors affirm the contrary, viz. That there is very good Marle which is not so, but lieth in the Mine pure, dry and short, yet nevertheless if you water it you shall finde it slippery. But the best and truest Rule to know the richness and profit of your Marle, is to try a Load or two on your Lands in several places, and in different proportions.

They usually lay the same on small heaps, and disperse it over the whole Field, as they do their Dung; and this Marle will keep the Land whereon it is laid, in some places ten or fifteen, and in some places thirty years in heart: it is most profitable in dry, light, and barren Lands, such as is most kinde and natural for Rye, as is evident by Mr. Blithes Experiment in his Chapter of Marle. It also affordeth not its vertue or strength the first year, so much as in the subsequent years. It yields a very great In∣crease and Advantage on high, sandy, gravelly, or mixed Lands,

though never so barren, strong Clay-ground is unsutable to it: yet if it can be laid dry, Marle may be profitable on that also.

It is very necessary in marling Lands to finde out the true pro∣portion, how much on every Acre, that you add not too much, nor too little (in medio virtus.) It's better to erre by laying on too little than too much, because you may add more at pleasure, but you cannot take away; the surest way is to try some small quan∣tities first, and proceed as your Experiments encourage. It hath been also experimentally observed, that you are to lay your Marle in the beginning of Winter on hard and binding Grounds. And on the contrary, you are to lay it in the Spring on light, sandy, dry, and gravelly lands, but it's good to try both; it's held to be best to lay it abroad in the beginning of Winter, that the Frosts may first make the same moulder into small pieces, and so to become apt for Solution, which is done by the Rains that more plentifully fall in the Winter.

You shall observe (saith Markham) that if you cannot get any perfect and rich Marle, if then you can get of that Earth which is called Fullers-Earth, and where the one is not, commonly the o∣ther is, then you may use it in the same manner as you should do Marle. and it is found to be very near as profitable.

Mr. Bernhard Palisly (that French Author cited so often by Sir Hugh Platt) commends the same; I have not known it at any time practised in England for the bettering of any ground (saith Sir Hugh Platt) but by all presumption the same must of necessity be very rich, because it is full of that vegetative Salt, which appears in these scouring effects, for the which it is divers ways had in use amongst us.

Clay is by many commended to be a considerable Improvement to some sorts of light and sandy Ground, as Sir Hugh Platt gives the relation of a certain person that assured it to be most true that the very Clay which he digged up in St. Georges Fields being laid upon his pasture-ground which he there held by Lease, did ex∣ceedingly enrich the same, insomuch as he did never regard to seek after any other Soil.

Also Mr. Gabriel Platt relates that he knew light sandy ground which was good for little or nothing, cured by laying thereon a great quantity of stiff Clay-ground which converted it to good temperament, whereby it became fruitful, and not subject to fail upon every light occasion as it did before, but would abide varie∣ty of weather according to the nature of Hasel-ground: And this Improvement (saith he) is of no little value, for there is a great difference betwixt Land that is subject to fail once in two or three years, and Land thus improved that will not fail once in two or three and twenty years through the distemperature of the weather.

Mr. Bernhard also affirms that all Marle is a kind of Clay-ground, and it should seem to differ only in digestion from Marle.

It is good to try it on several grounds both Arable and Pasture, and for several Grains at several times in the year, and in several

proportions, by this means you may finde out the true value and effect of this, and by the same Method of all other Subterraneal Soyl or Manure, and thereby raise unto your self a considerable advantage.

By the same Rule, and for the same Reason that Clay advan∣ceth the benefit of light and Sandy grounds, may Sand be an in∣richment and Improvement to cold Clay-grounds, as Mr. Gabriel Platt testifieth that he hath known stiff Clay-grounds that would seldom be fruitful unless the season of the year proved very pro∣sperous, to have been cured by laying thereupon a great quantity of light Sandy-ground, which afterwards was converted to a good temperament, like to the sort of ground commonly called Hasel∣ground, which seldom or never faileth to be fruitful.

The best Sand for fertility is that which is washed from the hills or other Sandy places by the violence of Rain; other Sands that are digged, have little fertility in them, only by way of contra∣cting to Clay-ground they may effect much, as Columela saith, that his Grandfather used to carry Sand on Clay, and on the con∣trary to bring Clay on Sandy grounds, and with good success.

Sand also is of great use to be mixed with Soil, as Mr. Blith adviseth; for the speedy raising of great quantities of Soil in the Winter by the sheep when foulding is generally neglected; and that is by making a large Sheep-house for the housing of Sheep in Winter, which may be Sheep-cribbed round about and in the middle too, to fother them therein: you may bring herein once or twice a week several Loads of Sand either out of the Streets or ways, or from a Sand-pit, and lay it three or four inches thick, and so continue once or twice a week as long as you please; and what with the heat and warmth of their bodies, and the fatness of their Dung and Urine, the Sand will turn to excellent rich Soil, and go very far upon Land, and be more serviceable than you can conceive.

There are several sorts of Earth that are of singular use for the bettering of Land, as all Earth of a Saltish nature is fruitful; espe∣cially all such Earth as lies dry covered with Hovels or Houses, of which you make Salt-petre, is rich for Land, and so are old floors under any Buildings.

Mr Platt affirms that he hath known many hundred loads of Earth sold for twelve pence a load being digged out of a Meadow near to Hampton-Court, which were carried three or four miles to the higher grounds, and fertilized those grounds wonderfully, and recompensed the labour and charges very well; which Earth be∣ing laid upon Arable Land within a Furlong of the same Mea∣dow did more hurt than good: which sheweth that the Earth must be of different nature from the Land whereon it is laid.

Also any sort of Earth may be made use of for the folding of Sheep thereon under a Covert, after the Flanders Manner, as be∣fore is said of Sand.

All sorts of Earth are very useful to intermix with Lime, Dung of Beasts, Fowl, or any other fatty substance being laid, stratum

super stratum, in pits or on heaps to putrifie together, as well to moderate the quality as to increase the quantity of your Soil.

Street-dirt in Towns and Villages is an excellent Improver of several sorts of Land, especially the light and sandy.

Notes

• Of Chalk.
• Of Lime.
• Of Marle. Differences of Marle.
• Signes of good or bad Marle.
• Best way to know Marle.
• Use and Benefit of Marle.
• Of Fullers Earth.
• Of Clay. Jewel-house of Art and Na∣ture.
• Of Sand.
• Of Earth.