Agriculture -- England; Conduct of life; Home economics, Rural
=8.= I. R. greatly expands this section, after the following manner.
Chapter 8. ¶ How a man should plough all manner of Lands all times
of the yeare.
Now that I haue prescribed the manner to make and temper the most
or all the sorts of Ploughs, it shall next seeme expedient for me
to show the manner and time of the yeare in which a man ought to
Plough, and for the better vnderstanding of the ignorant, I will
begin at the beginning of the yeare, and so succeede downe-ward:
After the feast of _Epiphanie_ it is time for a Husbandman to goe
to Plough, to wit, if your ground be a stiffe and a tough clay,
then shall you begin and Plough your Pease-earth, which is, where
you had your Wheate, Rye, and Barley, the yeere before: this
ground being ploughed, you shall let it so lye, which is called
bayting some fiue or sixe dayes, that it may receaue a frost or
two, which frost will so lighten and deuide the earth, that when
you shall come to harrow it, it will runne to a very good mold,
that otherwise it would neuer doe. If your ground be naturally
light and sandy, then may you immediatly vpon your ploughing sowe
without giuing your ground any bayte at all. When your Pease earth
is sowne, and the Spring is creeping on: then if you will follow
_Virgils_ famous principles, begin to fallow your ground which must
rest that yeare. In the beginning of Lent sow your Barley upon clay
grounds, but in hote sandy grounds, if you stay a moneth or more
longer it will be much the better. At mid-sommer stirre vp a-new,
that is, Plow againe your fallow ground: & before the rising of
the North-starre, which is eleuen dayes before the _Æquinoctial
Autumnal_, or the thirteenth of September, then sow your Wheate and
Rye, and these be the seasons and the graynes to sow, except Oates,
which is alwayes to be vsed in like manner as Barley is. If you
haue any ley ground to fallow or breake vp for to sowe Oates vpon,
then let that be the first thing you take in hand, that the grasse
and the mosse may be rot in it, and let your Plough runne a deepe
square furrow, and in all manner of ploughing, see that your eye,
your hand, and your foote agree, and be alwaies ready one to serue
another, and to turne vp so much mold and to lay it flatte that it
reare not an edge: for if it stand vp vpon an edge, the grasse and
mosse can neuer kindly rotte, which being vsed as it should, is an
excellent manuring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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