Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
so good for the kitchen, so needfull for beast,
It helpeth thy cattel, so feeble and faint,
if timely such cattle with it thou acquaint.
Thus endeth Octobers husbandrie.
[1]
White wheat upon pease etch is willing to grow:
though best upon fallow as many do knowe. 1577.
[2] After st. 5, 1577 has st. 31 _post_.
[3] St. 6 not in 1577.
[4] "In harms or harms way, whether of Roads, ill Neighbours, Torrents
of Water, Conies, or other Vermin."--T.R. Cf. _ante_, ch. 16, st. 15.
[5] In Septembers Husbandry, 1577.
[6] "Furrows drawn cross the Ridges in the lowest part of the
Ground."--T.R.
[7] "or too much Dung."--T.R.
[8] "There is a sort of Barley, called Sprat Barley, or Battledore
Barley, that will grow very well on lusty land. "--T.R.
[9] Stanza 40 is not in 1577.
[10] chawlk. 1577.
[11] Stanza 42 is not in 1577.
20.
¶ _Nouembers abstract.
Chap._ 18
1
Let hog once fat,
loose nothing of that.
When mast is gon,
hog falleth anon,
Still fat vp some,
till Shroftide come.
Now porke and souse,
beares tack in house.
2
Put barlie to malting,
lay flitches a salting.
Through follie too beastlie[E118]
much bacon is reastie.[1]
3
Some winnow, some fan,
some cast that can.[2]
In casting prouide,
for séede lay aside.
4
Thresh barlie thou shalt,
for chapman to malt.
Else thresh no more
but for thy store.
5[3]
Till March thresh wheat,
but as ye doo eat,
Least baker forsake it
if foystines take it.
6
No chaffe in bin,
makes horse looke thin.
7[4]
Sowe hastings now,
that hastings alow.
8
They buie it full déere,
in winter that réere.
9
Few fowles, lesse swine,
rere now, friend mine.
10
What losse, what sturs,
through rauening curs.
11
Make Martilmas béefe,
déere meate is a théefe.
12
Set garlike and pease,
saint Edmond to please.
13
When raine takes place,
to threshing apace.
14
Mad braine, too rough,
marres all at plough.
With flaile and whips,
fat hen short skips.
15
Some threshing by taske,
will steale and not aske:
Such thresher at night
walkes seldom home light.
Some corne away lag
in bottle and bag.
Some steales, for a iest,
egges out of the nest.
16
Lay stouer[E119] vp drie
in order to lie.
Poore bullock[5] doth craue
fresh straw to haue.
17
Make wéekly vp flower,
though threshers do lower:
Lay graine in loft
and turne it oft.
18
For muck, regard,
make cleane foule yard.
Lay straw to rot,
in watrie plot.
19
Hedlond vp plow,
for compas ynow.
20
For herbes good store,
trench garden more.
21
At midnight trie
foule priuies to fie.
22
Rid chimney of soot,
from top to the foot.
23
In stable, put now
thy horses for plow.
24
Good horsekeeper will
laie muck vpon hill.
25[6]
Cut molehils that stand
so thick vpon land.
Thus endeth Novembers abstract, agréeing with Nouembers husbandrie.
¶ Other short remembrances.
26
Get pole, boy mine,
beate hawes to swine.
Driue hog to the wood,
brake rootes be good.
27
For mischiefe that falles,
looke well to marsh walles.
Drie laier get neate,
and plentie of meate.
28
Curst cattel that nurteth,
poore wennel soon hurteth.
Good neighbour mine,
ring well thy swine.
29
Such winter may serue,
hog ringled[7] will sterue.
In frost kéepe dog
from hunting of hog.
Here ends Nouembers short remembrances.
[1] resty. 1577
[2] 1577 reads--
Let husbandly man
make clene as he can.
[3] Not in 1577.
[4] Stanzas 7-10 are not in 1577.
[5] kow.
[6] St. 25 is not in 1577.
[7] ringd. 1577.
21.
¶ _Nouembers husbandrie.
Chap._ 19.
Nouember take flaile,
Let ship no more saile.
Forgotten month past,
Doe now at the last.
[Sidenote: Slaughter time.]
1
At Hallontide, slaughter time entereth in,
and then doth the husbandmans feasting begin
From thence vnto shroftide kill now and then some,
their offal for houshold the better wil come.[E120]
[Sidenote: Dredge is otes and barlie.]
2
Thy dredge and thy barley go thresh out to malt,
let malster be cunning, else lose it thou shalt:
Thencrease of a seame is a bushel for store,
bad else is the barley, or huswife much more.
[Sidenote: Winnowing, fanning, and casting.]
3
Some vseth to winnow,[1] some vseth to fan,
some vseth to cast it as cleane as they can:
For seede goe and cast it, for malting not so,
but get out the cockle,[2] and then let it go.[E121]
[Sidenote: Threshing of barlie.]
4
Thresh barlie as yet but as neede shal require,
fresh threshed for stoouer thy cattel desire:
And therefore that threshing forbeare as ye may,
till Candelmas comming, for sparing of hay.
5
Such wheat as ye keepe for the baker to buie,
vnthreshed till March in the sheafe let it lie,
Least foistnes take it if sooner yee thresh it,
although by oft turning ye seeme to refresh it.[E122]
[Sidenote: Chaffe of corne.]
6
Saue chaffe of the barlie, of wheate, and of rie,
from feathers and foistines, where it doth lie,
Which mixed with corne, being sifted of dust,
go giue to thy cattel, when serue them ye must.
7[3]
Greene peason or hastings at Hallontide sowe,
in hartie good soile he requireth to growe:
Graie peason or runciuals cheerely to stand,
at Candlemas sowe, with a plentifull hand.
8
Leaue latewardly rering, keepe now no more swine,
but such as thou maist, with the offal of thine:
Except ye haue wherewith to fat them away,
the fewer thou keepest, keepe better yee may.
9
To rere vp much pultrie, and want the barne doore,
is naught for the pulter and woorse for the poore.
So, now to keepe hogs and to sterue them for meate,
is as to keepe dogs for to bawle in the streate.
10
As cat a good mouser is needfull in house,
because for hir commons she killeth the mouse,
So rauening curres, as a meany doo keepe,
makes master want meat, and his dog to kill sheepe.[E123]
[Sidenote: Martilmas beefe.]
11
(For Easter) at Martilmas hang vp a beefe,
for stalfed and pease fed plaie pickpurse the theefe:
With that and the like, er an grasse biefe come in,
thy folke shal looke cheerelie when others looke thin.
[Sidenote: ¶ Set garlike and beanes.]
12
Set garlike and beanes, at S. Edmond[4] the king,
the moone in the wane, thereon hangeth a thing:[E124]
Thencrease of a pottle (well prooued of some)
shal pleasure thy houshold er peskod time come.
[Sidenote: Threshing.]
13
When raine is a let to thy dooings abrode,
set threshers a threshing to laie on good lode:
Thresh cleane ye must bid them, though lesser they yarn,
and looking to thriue, haue an eie to thy barne.
[Sidenote: Cattle beaters.]
14
Take heede to thy man in his furie and heate,
with ploughstaff and whipstock, for maiming thy neate:
To thresher for hurting of cow with his flaile,
or making thy hen to plaie tapple vp taile.[E125]
[Sidenote: Corne stealers.]
15
Some pilfering thresher will walke with a staffe,
will carrie home corne as it is in the chaffe,
And some in his bottle of leather so great[E126]
will carry home daily both barlie and wheat.
[Sidenote: Kéepe dry thy straw.]
16
If houseroome will serue thee, lay stouer vp drie,
and euerie sort by it selfe for to lie.
Or stack it for litter, if roome be too poore,
and thatch out the residue noieng thy doore.[5]
[Sidenote: Euery wéeke rid thy barne flower.]
17
Cause weekly thy thresher to make vp his flower,
though slothfull and pilferer thereat doo lower:
Take tub for a season, take sack for a shift,
yet garner for graine is the better for thrift.
18
All maner of strawe that is scattered in yard,
good husbandlie husbands haue daily regard,
In pit full of water the same to bestowe,
where lieng to rot, thereof profit may growe.
[Sidenote: Digging of hedlonds.]
19
Now plough vp thy hedlond,[6] or delue it with spade,
where otherwise profit but little is made:
And cast it vp high, vpon hillocks to stand,
that winter may rot it, to compas thy land.
[Sidenote: Trenching of garden.]
20
If garden requier it, now trench it ye may,
one trench not a yard from another go lay:
Which being well filled with muck by and by,
go couer with mould for a season to ly.
[Sidenote: Clensing of priuies.]
21
Foule priuies are now to be clensed and fide,
let night be appointed such baggage to hide:
Which buried in garden, in trenches alowe,
shall make very many things better to growe.
[Sidenote: Sootie chimneyes.]
22
The chimney all sootie would now be made cleene,
for feare of mischances, too oftentimes seene:
Old chimney and sootie, if fier once take,
by burning and breaking, soone mischeefe may make.[E127]
[Sidenote: Put horse into stable.]
23
When ploughing is ended, and pasture not great,
then stable thy horses, and tend them with meat:
Let season be drie when ye take them to house,
for danger of nittes, or for feare of a louse.[E128]
[Sidenote: Sauing of doong.]
24
Lay compas vp handsomly, round on a hill,
to walke in thy yard at thy pleasure and will,
More compas it maketh and handsom the plot,
if horsekeeper daily forgetteth it not.
25[7]
Make hillocks of molehils, in field thorough out,
and so to remaine, till the yeere go about.
Make also the like whereas plots be too hie,
all winter a rotting for compas to lie.
Thus endeth Nouembers husbandrie.
[1] winnew. 1557.
[2] "If the Cockle be left in, it will work, and some say make the
Drink the stronger."--T.R.
[3] Stanzas 7-10 are not in 1577.
[4] 20th November.
[5] "The rest may lie in the open Yard, for the Cattle to tread into
Dung, which is the practice now a days, so that our Farmers are not so
afraid of noying their Doors it seems as formerly, and that not without
good reason."--T.R.
[6] T.R. thinks that here is meant "such Ground in Common Field-land,
which the whole Shot (or parcel of Land belonging to many Men against
which it lies) turn upon."
[7] St. 25 is not in 1577.
22.
¶ _Decembers abstract.
Chap._ 20.
1
No season to hedge,
get béetle and wedge.
Cleaue logs now all,
for kitchen and hall.
2
Dull working tooles
soone courage cooles.
3
Leaue off tittle tattle,
and looke to thy cattle.
Serue yoong poore elues
alone by themselues.
4
Warme barth for neate,
woorth halfe their meate.
The elder that nurteth
the yonger soone hurteth.
5
Howse cow that is old,
while winter doth hold.
6
Out once in a day,
to drinke and to play.
7
Get trustie to serue,
least cattle doo sterue.
And such as in déede
may helpe at a néede.
8
Obserue this law,
in seruing out straw.
9
In walking about,
good forke spie out.
10
At full and at change,
spring tides are strange.
If doubt ye fray,
driue cattle away.
11
Dank ling forgot
will quickly rot.
12
Here learne and trie
to turne it and drie.
13
Now stocks remooue,
that Orchards looue.
14
Set stock to growe
too thick nor too lowe.
Set now, as they com,
both cherie[1] and plom.
15
Shéepe, hog, and ill beast,
bids stock to ill feast.[2]
16
At Christmas is good
to let thy horse blood.
17
Mark here what rable
of euils in stable.
18
Mixe well (old gaffe)
horse corne with chaffe.
Let Jack nor Gill
fetch corne at will.
19[3]
Some countries gift
to make hard shift.
Some cattle well fare
with fitches and tare.
Fitches and tares
be Norfolke wares.
20
Tares threshed with skill
bestowe as yée will.
21
Hide strawberies, wife,
to saue their life.
22
Knot, border, and all,
now couer ye shall.
23
Helpe bées, sweet conie,
with licour and honie.
24
Get campers a ball,
to campe therewithall.
Thus endeth Decembers abstract, agréeing with Decembers husbandrie.
¶ Other short remembrances.
[25]
Let Christmas spie