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. IV. Of Carrots, Turneps, and other Roots useful in the Kitchin.

This is one of the most Universal and necessary Roots this Country affords, only they will not prosper in every ground; they principally delighting in a warm, light, or sandy Soyl; or if others, it must be well stirred and manured: but if the ground be naturally warm and light, though but indifferently fertil, yet will they thrive therein: It is usual to sow them in the Intervals between the Beans, in digged, not in ploughed Land, because of extending their Roots downwards: After the Beans are gone, they become a second Crop; the best are for the Table, the other for the feeding or fatting of Swine, Geese, &c. some of the fairest laid up in reasonable dry Sand, will keep throughout the Winter. The fairest of them may you reserve till the Spring, and plant them for Seed.

As to the general way of propagating them, we have already given you a hint; therefore have we little more to say, but that for your Kitchin-use you may sow them at several times; and if the Weather, the Birds, or the Worm destroy them, you may re∣new your labour and cost for a small matter. After they are in their prime, you must house them from the Frost, by laying them in your Celler, or suchlike place, on heaps.

This is an excellent sweet Root, and very pleasing to some people; it is to be sown in the Spring, in a rich, mellow, and well-stirred Soyl. When they are grown to any bigness, tread down the tops, which will make the Roots grow the larger: The like may be done to Carrots, Turneps, or any other Roots. To∣wards the Winter, when you raise them, they may be disposed of in Sand, to be preserved as Carrots, Turneps, &c. The fair∣est may be kept for Seed, as before of Carrots; and then take the fairest and tallest tops of those seeds in the Summer and sow them, and by this means may you attain the fairest Roots.

The Skirret is sweeter than any of the former Roots; they de∣light in a very fat and light Mould, and are raised of the Slips, being planted in the Spring-time in Ranges, about five or six inches asunder: At the Winter, when you raise the Roots, you may lay the tops in Earth till the Spring, for your farther en∣crease.

They are so cummonly known, and their propagation so easie, that here needs no more to be said of them.

These are very usual in Forreign parts, and are planted in se∣veral places of this Country to a very good advantage; they are easily encreased, by cutting the Roots in several pieces, each piece growing as well as the whole Root; they require a good fat Garden-mould, but will grow indifferently well in any: they are commonly eaten either Buttered, or in Milk. I do not hear that it hath been as yet essayed, whether they may not be propagated in great quantities for food for Swine, or other Cattle.

These are near of the Nature of the Potatoes, but not so good nor so wholesome; but may probably be propagated in great quantities, and prove good food for Swine: They are either planted of the Roots, or of Seeds.

Onions are Roots very much in request for their several and divers uses they are put unto in the Kitchin; they delight in a fine, fat, and warm Mould, and are to be sown in March, or soon after; but if you sow them sooner, you must cover them at the first: where they come up too thick, they may be drawn and planted where they are thinner; when they are grown to some reasonable bigness, you ought to bend down, or tread the Spin∣dle or Stalk, which will make the head the larger: being sown with Bay-salt, they have prospered exceeding well. In August they are usually ripe; then are they to be taken up and dried in the Sun, and reserved for use, in places rather dry than moist.

This is so Universally known and propagated, that I need say little of it: If set in rich ground, it encreases to admiration; and may be Annually multiplied, without hazard of Weather: keeping down the Leaves makes the Root large.

They are sown as the Onions, and afterwards it is best to transplant them deep, that they may have a great deal of White-stalk, one such Leek being worth two others.

The fairest and biggest of Leeks and Onions are to be reserved and planted for Seed; the stalks whereof are to be propped up with sticks, by reason of their weight: When the Seed is ripe, reserve the Heads on some Cloth, and let them be through dry e're you rub them out.

There are several sorts of Kitchin-herbs and Plants very neces∣sary and useful, and also profitable to be propagated and ad∣vanced in our Country-gardens; as Thime, Hyssop, Sage, Rose∣mary, Marjerom, Violets, and several others: Their ways and manner of Planting being so Universally known, and not alto∣gether pertinent to our discourse, I shall pass them by, and refer you to others that treat of them.

I thought to have omitted this Plant, by reason the Statute-Laws are so severe against the Planters of it, but that it is a Plant so much improving Land, and imploying so many hands, that in time it may gain footing in the good Opinion of the Landlord, as well as of the Tenant, which may prove a means to obtain some liberty for its growth here, and not to be totally excluded out of the Husbandmans Farm. The great Objection is the prejudice it would bring to Navigation, the fewer Ships being imployed; and the lessening his Majesties Revenue. To which may be answered, that there are but few Ships imployed to Virginia; and if many, yet there would be but few the less; for it's not to be imagined, that we should Plant enough to furnish our whole Nation, and maintain a Trade abroad also: And in case it should lessen the number of Ships for the present, they would soon encrease again, as the Trade of Virginia would al∣ter into other Commodities, as Silk, Wine and Oyl, which would be a much better Trade for them and us.

And as to the lessening his Majesties Revenue, the like Im∣position may be laid on the same Commodity growing at home, as if imported from abroad, or some other of like value in lieu of it.

Certain it is, that the Planting of it would imploy abundance of people in Tilling, Planting, Weeding, Dressing and Curing of it. And the improvement of Land is very great, from ten shillings per Acre, to thirty or forty pound per Acre, all Charges paid: before the last severe Laws, many Plantations were in Gloucestershire, Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Oxfordshire, to the quantity of many hundreds of Acres.

Some object, that our English-Tobacco is not so good as the Forreign; but if it be as well respected by the Vulgar, let the more Curious take the other that's dearer. Although many are

of Opinion that it's better than Forreign, having a more Haut∣gust, which pleaseth some; if others like it not, they may in the curing of it make it milder, and by that means alter or change it as they please: It hath been often sold in London for Spanish Tobacco.

The best way and manner of Planting and Curing it, would be easily obtained by experience: many attempting it, some would be sure to discover the right way of ordering of it, and what ground or places it best affects.

But that which hath been observed is, that it affects a rich, deep and warm soil well dressed in the Spring before Planting time: The Young Plants raised from seed in February or March, on a hot Bed, and then planted abroad in your prepared ground, from whence you may expect a very good Crop, and sometimes two Crops in a year. The leaves, when gathered, are first laid together on heaps for some time, and then hang'd up (by Threads run through them) in the shade, until they are through dry, and then put up and kept, the longer the better. In this, Experience is the best Master.

Notes

• Of Carrots.
• Turneps.
• Parsneps.
• Of Skirrets.
• Of Radishes.
• Of Potatoes.
• Of Jerusalem-Artichoaks.
• Of Onions.
• Of Garlick.
• Of Leeks.
• Tobacco.