Chapter 16.

¶ How to make barraine ground bring foorth good Corne.

If thy ground be barraine and hard, yeelding nothing but ill Hay of insuing profit, then shal it be necessary for thee to vse these secrets in Art which is most auaileable. And first for thy Pease, Beanes, Barley, and Oates, if thou sowest any of them: sowe them vpon the eight day of April, which is the Equinoctiall vernall,[39] when _Libra_[40] draweth the houres of the day and night to an euen and iust proportion, and what Corne is so sowne prospereth greatly: but if thou wilt be assured that no Corne thou sowest shall faile, then take Salt-peeter and mingle with thy Corne, and sow it, and thy labor shall neuer be frustrate. For want of it, take the black dreggs of Oyle, and wette thy seede ere thou sow it, and it shall vndoubtedly spring vp. If thou hast none of these, then take Pigions dunge, and mingle it with thy seede in thy hopper, and sow it: though it be not so good as the other, yet is the profitable vertue wonderfull.

=35.= 7. _Kente_] Kent, and Hartfordshiere.

8. _gise_] vse. _Gise_ = guise, way, manner, plan. I. R. has “great safety for sheding the Corne,” retaining here the old use of _for_.

12. I. R. adds--For your seede, if you will be aduised by me, you shall change it alway once in two or three yeare. For to sow continually one seede bred in one soyle it will decay & grow ill: and in your exchange draw it alwayes from the harder soyle, and being brought into a better, it must the rather prosper.

=36.= 3. _reed_] reeded. This form is wrong, like our use of _wonted_ for _wont_ (= won-ed).

At the end of this section, I. R. closes his First Booke.

=37.= 6. Here I. R. inserts--Of Sheepe there be two sorts, that is, blacke and white, but the white is the best, for the Wooll they beare there bee of diuers Staples: some long and hairie, as those bredde in barren cold Countries, and that is the worst; some hard, short, and curld, as those bred in woody grounds, and that is better: some long, thicke, soft, and curled, and that is the best of all: and they be bredde vpon fine heathes, where they haue short, dry, and sweet foode. The profit of wooll the world can witnesse, and yeerely your Ewes will bring forth Lambes, which is an other commoditie; and lastly, in some Countries, as in Suffolke, Essex, and Kent, with many other, they milke their Ewes, a gaine equall to the rest. Therfore when you chuse sheepe, elect them big-boand and well-woolld, their colours beeing white. For _Virgill_ faines, that _Cynthia_, the Goddess of Chastitie, in whose thoughts could neuer enter impuritie, was enamored of _Endimion_ onely through hys flocke of white sheepe. When therfore you haue got a flock of white sheepe, then you must chuse Rams to equall them, for preseruing the breede: your Ram would bee white also, and ouer and beside you must looke in his mouth, and if the roofe thereof be blacke, then is hee not good: for either hee will then get blacke Lambes, or at least staine theyr fleeces with a duskie colour. The greater the homes of your Ram is, the worse; for the pollard is the chiefest Ram.

14. _blyssomme or ryde_] blossome and arride.

16. _at the Exaltation of the holye crosse_] in September.

32. I. R. adds--Wherfore be carefull to keepe thy sheepe well, both with hay in Winter as well as with grasse in Sommer. Also in the Winter such Sheepe as thou intendest to fatte and sell, let them either haue straw or fleakes to lie vpon, for the cold earth will both disease them and hinder their feeding.

=38.= 3. _trouse_] brouse. See these words in the glossary.

6, 7. The sense is--and if she (the ewe) will not stand sideways beside the lamb; _i.e._ in such a position that the lamb can approach her side. There is an evident misprint in l. 7, where the original has _ewe_ for _lambe_. I. R. tries to make sense by turning _all_ into _call_; thus--“and if she wil not stand side-long, call the Ewe and giue her a little hay.” This is an evident attempt at making sense by falsifying the grammar of the text; for Fitzherbert does not say “_and_ give her,” but “_than_ gyue her,” _i.e._ then give her. Consequently all that precedes the word _than_ belongs to the clause containing the supposition.

=39.= 9. After _theym_, I. R. inserts--Yet _Virgill_ aduiseth you in such a case to haue a leather full of sharp poynted nayles, which being put about the musell of the Lambe, if it offer to sucke, it will so pricke the dugges of the Ewe th_a_t she will not suffer it, but by that meanes weane it perforce: and by the same deuise you may weane all maner of Cattell whatsoeuer. See Virg. Georg. iii. 399.

=40.= 14. _steke_] shutt (which is a gloss).

24. _go belte, grese_, _i.e._ go and belt them, and grease them. As to _belting_, see the next section. I. R. very stupidly alters the phrase to _goe melt grease_, though he has to retain the word _belt_ below.

=41.= 18. It is hard to make an old dog stoop; _i.e._ it is hard to make him submit to being taught. This occurs in Heywood’s Proverbs, 1562 (Hazlitt). In the most insipid way, I. R. alters _to stoupe_ into _for Sheepe_, spoiling the whole saying.

=43.= To _medle terre_ is to mix tar. I. R. alters _medle_ in the rubric to _melt_, and then substitutes _mingled_ for _medled_ in l. 1. This is very clumsy.

=44.= In the rubric, I. R. alters _brome_ to _browne_, which is certainly wrong; see the context.

7. _gelly_] Ielly. Yet the spelling with _g_ is well enough.

8. _pysse_] pisse or lye. See _lye_ in the glossary.

14. _or of faldynge_, &c.] or a folding of some such soft cloth or wooll. It is clear that I. R. did not know the word _faldynge_, or he would not thus have altered the text.

17. _sheydes_] sheeds; _i.e._ partings; see sect. 42, l. 4.

24. _for_] from (as in other places). _For_ = against, to prevent.

=45.= 4. _fyled_] filled. This is wrong; _fyled_ means fouled, defiled.

=46.= 3. _rather_] sooner. I. R. adds--There be diuers waters for this purpose, as water made of Sandiuer and burnt Allom, or the iuyce of Housleeke strained and mingled with Rose-water; or the braines of an hatched, as thus: Take a linnen cloth, and burne it vpon the head of a hatchet, then blow away the ashes, and there wilbe on the hatchets head a kind of oyle, that taken and put in a sheepes eye, is most excellent.

=47.= 3. _clese_] clawes.

9. _clese_] clea. _Clea_ is _claw_; _clese_ = _cleas_, claws.

15. _pece of fleshe_] peece of fleame (i.e. phlegm).

=48.= 12. I. R. adds--to the great hinderance of the sale.

=49.= 1. _pockes_] Pox (the modern spelling).

9. I. R. adds--but if you cannot wash them, then let them blood in the roofes of the mouth, and after they haue left bleeding, giue them a supping of milke and Saffron mingled together.

=51.= 6. _murtheryng or ouer-pressyng_] smoothering or oppressing. And certainly _smothering_ seems the right word.

10. I. R. adds--Wash your sheepe in running Riuers, for standing Ponds are ill.

=52.= 4. _tarboxe_] Tarbox, or bronne salue. Here _bronne_ is a misprint for _broune_; and _broune_ is a mistake for _brome_. See note to sect. 44 above.

=54.= 14. After _shepe_, I. R. inserts--salt marshes onely excepted.

22. _kelles vppon the grasse_] kels vpon the grasse like to Spinners webs. (A _spinner_ is a spider.)

31. _white snailes_] white finells (not clearly printed).

=55.= 2. _stryndes_] strings (badly). So also in l. 4.

16. _lyttel quikens_] a little quicknes (absurdly). _flokes_] flocks. But _flukes_ are meant.

Here I. R. inserts a chapter on goats, as follows.