The mystery of husbandry, or, Arable, pasture and wood-land improved Containing the whole art and mystery of agriculture or husbandry, in bettering and improving all degrees of land ... : directions for marling, dunging, mudding, sanding ... : proper times for sowing, chusing good seed, and ploughing ... : how to keep corn and other pulse from being destroyed by birds, vermin, lightening, mildew ... : To which is added The countryman's alamack. / by Lenard Meager.

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

Summer, soon after the Flower decays, it appears to dry or wither.

In September, the Flowers being blew and lovely to be∣hold, come up without any green leaves, or spires, and in the middle of each Flower you will find two, three, or four blades of Saffron standing upright, and at the same time the Flower spreads itself; and when you per∣ceive them thus to put out, draw them forth between your Finger and Thumb, and put them into a thick, clean Lin∣nen-bag, the better to preserve the scent; do this every morning, or otherways it will return into the Flower, or Earth, and you cannot, with any conveniency, come at it till the next morning; and this you may do for a Month together, the Flowers continually increasing, and there∣fore the number of your Saffron-pickers must be accord∣ing to the quantity of your Crop, that it be gathered with expedition; no time but the morning being proper to do it in.

Saffron will grow to bear two successive Crops, but no more; for then you must transplant the younger Roots, and lay the elder aside, as useless. These Roots are com∣monly sold by the Bushel, and two Bushel of good ones will sufficiently furnish an Acre of Land so ordered as di∣rected.

The Season for taking it up, is the beginning of July, or you may do it the latter end of June, if you see occasi∣on. To dry Saffron, when gathered, you must make a Kiln of Clay, not quite half so large as a Bee-hive, though in form like it, with small Sticks laid over; and it must be tended with a moderate Charcole-fire, turned, and or∣dered, so that that it may dry well in every part: and to know when it is sufficiently dryed, reduce three pound, as it grows wet or moist, to one when dryed, and it is suffici∣ently ordered; and of a good Acre you may expect fifteen pound of well dryed and good conditioned Saffron; though two pound, at the rate it goes, will much over-ballance your charge and labour.