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CHAP. XXXIX.
How to plant and order Saffron for the improve∣ment of Land, &c.
SAffron is not the least to be considered for the improve∣ment of Ground, and is of excellent use in Medicines for comforting the Heart, and expelling all ill Vapours that have Death for their attendants, if not timely removed; and therefore, if for no other reason, it ought to be plant∣ed, cherished and improved: but there are others, for it brings great profit to the industrious Husband-man, great∣ly recompencing his labour, if care be taken about it, as those in Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridge-shire, where it grows in abundance, experimentally find.
It will grow upon indifferent Ground, with little manu∣ring, if it be not stiff Clay, too cold or wet, but rather a compound, mostly inclining to red Sand, and somewhat Stony, though a fine mellow Mould produces it better; plough this well, and make the Mould small with the go∣ing over of Harrows, and beating the Clumpers; lay the Lands high, as for Wheat, with convenient ridges; then with an Iron Instrument like a Hoe, with a twelve or fourteen Inch'd broad Bit, draw the Furrows long ways, pretty deep, place your Roots, or Sets in them, (for, from the Seeds no advantage arises, unless they are tran∣splanted) let them be placed about two Inches one from other, and set about three Inches deep; then draw another Furrow so near, that the Mould turned out of it may co∣ver the former Roots, and so one after another, till the whole be effected to your desire, but the last, into which you must draw what Mould comes next. The proper time of setting them, is the latter end of June, or begin∣ning of July, leaving ranges, or spaces between the Fur∣rows, that a small Hoe may pass to take away the Weeds. All Winter they will appear green, like Sives, but in the