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FLax will yield thirty or forty pound an acre, sandy, baren, and heathy ground is best for it, and after Flax, Turnips, one acre of good Flax accounted worth three or four acres of the best Wheat, and the Liquor hath much advanced the goodness thereof.
The best time for the sowing ther∣of is about the beginning of April,
presently after a shower of rain, which may abundantly be supply∣ed by the Engine, and Muck-wa∣ter following; some do usually sowe Flax untill the end of May, and some after.
There are divers places in Eng∣land that would maintain one hun∣dred hives of Bees, without provi∣ding conveniency of food for them, and it was an easiy thing to get five hundred pound per annum by Bees in places convenient.
To make trees bear much and ex∣cellent fruit, and to advantage them in their growth half in half, is on∣ly by the scasonable application of the Muck-water, and the water fol∣lowing for worms.
When a tree is spent and hath done bearing, under-prop it so as that it may be stedfastly supported that the body may not sink, then take away the earth under the roots, and adde thereunto good rich Mould to the empty places, or your best mixed earth, with the Muck-water, and you shall perceive the tree to revive again, flourish, pros∣per, and bear fruit more plentiful∣ly than ever it did, so may you do with a tree that is fallen down.
First split the root of an old tree, and adde thereunto Pingeons dung, Lees of Wine _____ _____ and a little
Brimstone, or any such thing, as you shall understand to be destru∣ctive to worms, which composition hath been often tryed.
I have known a Vine planted up∣on the top of an Oak that did yield aboundance of excellent Grapes, very large, pleasant and full of Juyce, and why not many Oaks so planted. In ground fit to be digged up, to set corn, and thereby to reap an hundred for one, and all charges born, and less than a peck of wheat will fat an acre, and with the use of Muck-water, a far greater increase.
That one good digging being it goeth deeper than the Plow, and thereby destructive to all sorts of weeds, and Grass, is as good as three plowings, if the Land be mellow, and the charge is no more.
This course would imploy hun∣dreds
& thousands, and the ground be made convenienter for other crops, which would be far greater. If we set a grain of Corn, as Wheat, Bar∣ly, &c. it usually produceth three hundred and four hundred for one, according to experience, but if you sowe Wheat the accustomed way six for one is accounted a good crop.
If the same quantity of acres of poor, heathy, barren Land, by pro∣ducing Flax, Turnips, and Clover-grass will yield more profit than the richest Land that beareth, wheat, Barly, Meadow, and good pasture, then by consequence the poor Land is better than the rich.
It is also justified that two acres of corn being equally sowen, if the Muck-water be in time cast over the one acre, sufficiently either with the Engine, or otherwise, that acre shall exceed the other five for one, and upwards.
You may have six times more
Hay, in a Meadow when it is turned up with the Plow, or a Cut∣ting-knife, and sowed thick with the Ashes, burnt of out the substance thereof.
But the rain must follow first, o∣therwise use the Muck-water or or∣dinary water, with the Engine, then sowe the Meadow with the seed of Trefoyl, and plow and har∣row them, or in some ground you may use a strong Iron rake; let the first Grass that groweth thereon be very ripe that it may fall off it self, then let some pass over it rakes and cords, and stir it that it may fall out afterward, let it be mowed off, and carried to a certain place where it may be con∣veniently dryed, and the Grass will grow again presently, and may be mowed again in that year.
There are waies to make rushy
ground bear very good grasse, first plow it up, then Marl it, or plow and burn it, according to the usual custome, and being wet trench it, and then add a proportion of the muck following thereunto, with being rightly ordered will exceed the ordinary muck five for one, and upwards.
To make Corn-ground, quite out of heart, and worn out, to af∣ford as good a Crop on the last yeer of the lease as ever it did be∣fore, and this hath been performed by steeping the Corn, and muck Water.
Sow with your Oats, the bot∣tom of a Hay-mow, and although your Land be out o sheart, and very poor, you may have that yeer, not
onely a Crop of Oats, but also a Crop of Grass likewise, which was spared till the next yeer, that it might beget a good sword, &c.
There is a workman that made a Cart to draw as much with one horse as with five, and is still living at Dedford.
An Honourable person neer Lon∣don, hath devised a Plough that with one horse, and a boy, will per∣form as much in a day, as his neighbours, onely with the parti∣tion of a hedge between them, upon the same sort of ground, can di∣spatch with four or five horses, and two men besides; the Gentleman doth advance, twenty for one, in an Acre, more than his neighbours can do, and these people, when they have been very much cast behinde, have been offered the help of this Plough, but they have refused it, because they would not alter their antient course.
The same Gentleman hath like, wise a Cart with three wheeles, wherewith one horse will draw, about fourty loads of Muck in a day, to a field of some distance, neither is the horse put to any hardnesse of labour, for a man may draw the Cart with his hand, & it will passe with great facility, the horse doth not bear any weight at all, he hath likewise a very large Cart with three wheels, where∣with one horse can draw a full load.
This Gentleman hath likewise a Chariot with three wheeles being like the hinder part of a Coach, and hath a seat behinde the chair, where his foot-boy may sit, if the wayes prove foul, in which Cha∣riot his wife and himself have tra∣velled eighty Miles, in two dayes, with one horse, and although he be sufficiently provided with hor∣ses, yet he commonly useth his Chariot, and guideth the horse,
by the reigns himself with much ease and delight.
And therewith he hath outgone a Coach and six horses; he con∣stantly useth the same Chariot up∣on any occasion from his house to London.