Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
[Sidenote: ¶ Runciual peason.]
8
Dig garden, stroy mallow, now may ye at ease,
and set (as a daintie) thy runciuall pease.[6]
Go cut and set roses, choose aptly thy plot,
the rootes of the yoongest are best to be got.
[Sidenote: Timelie prouision for fewell.]
9
In time go and bargaine, least woorser doo fall,
for fewell, for making, for carriage and all.
To buie at the stub[E171] is the best for the buier,
more timelie prouision, the cheaper is fier.
[Sidenote: Ill husbandrie.]
10
Some burneth a lode at a time in his hall,
some neuer leaue burning til burnt they haue all.
Some making of hauock, without any wit,
make many poore soules without fire to sit.
[Sidenote: Pruning of trées.]
11
If frost doo continue, this lesson doth well,
for comfort of cattel the fewell to fell:
From euerie tree the superfluous bows
now prune for thy neat therevpon to go brows.[7]
[Sidenote: Mistle and iuie.]
12
In pruning and trimming all maner of trees,
reserue to ech cattel their properly fees.
If snowe doo continue, sheepe hardly that fare
craue Mistle and Iuie for them for to spare.
[Sidenote: Lopping of pollengers.]
13
Now lop for thy fewell old pollenger growen,
that hinder the corne or the grasse to be mowen.
In lopping and felling, saue edder and stake,[E172]
thine hedges as needeth to mend or to make.
14
In lopping,[8] old Jocham, for feare of mishap,
one bough stay vnlopped, to cherish the sap:
The second yeere after then boldly ye may,
for driping his fellowes, that bough cut away.
[Sidenote: The propertie of soft wood.]
15
Lop popler and sallow, elme, maple, and prie,
well saued from cattle, till Sommer to lie.
So far as in lopping, their tops ye doo fling,
so far without planting yoong copie will spring.[E173]
16[9]
Such fewell as standing a late ye haue bought,
now fell it, and make it, and doo as ye ought.
Giue charge to the hewers (that many things mars),
to hew out for crotches, for poles, and for spars.
[Sidenote: Hoppoles and crotches.]
17
If hopyard or orchard ye mind for to haue,
for hoppoles and crotches in lopping go saue.
Which husbandlie spared may serue at a push,
and stop by so hauing two gaps with a bush.
18
From Christmas, till May be well entered in,
some cattle waxe faint, and looke poorely and thin.
And cheefly when prime[E174] grasse[10] at first doth appeere,
then most is the danger of all the whole yeere.
[Sidenote: A medicen for faint cattell.]
19
Take vergis and heate it, a pint for a cow,
bay salt a hand full,[11] to rub tong ye wot how.
That done, with the salt, let hir drinke off the rest:
this manie times raiseth the feeble vp best.
[Sidenote: To fasten loose téeth in a bullock.]
20
Poore bullock with browsing and naughtily fed,
scarce feedeth, hir teeth be so loose in hir hed:
Then slise ye the taile where ye feele it so soft,
with soote and with garlike bound to it aloft.[12]
[Sidenote: Ewes vpon eaning.]
21
By brembles and bushes, in pasture too full,
poore sheepe be in danger and loseth their wull.[13]
Now therefore thine ewe, vpon lamming so neere,
desireth in pasture that all may be cleere.
22
Leaue grubbing or pulling of bushes (my sonne)
till timely thy fences require to be donne.
Then take of the best, for to furnish thy turne,
and home with the rest, for the fier to burne.
[Sidenote: Stubbing of gréenes.]
23
In euerie greene,[14] if the fence be not thine,
now stub vp the bushes, the grasse to be fine.
Least neighbour doo dailie so hack[15] them beliue,[E175]
that neither thy bushes nor pasture can thriue.
24
In ridding[16] of pasture with turfes that lie by,[17]
fill euerie hole vp, as close as a dy.
The labour is little, the profit is gay,
what euer the loitering labourers say.
25
The sticks and the stones go and gather vp cleene,
for hurting of sieth or for harming of greene.[18]
For feare of Hew prowler,[E176] get home with the rest,
when frost is at hardest, then carriage is best.
[Sidenote: Yoong lambes.]
26
Yoong broome or good pasture thy ewes doo require,
warme barth and in safetie their lambes doo desire.
Looke often well to them, for foxes and dogs,
for pits and for brembles, for vermin and hogs.
27
More daintie[19] the lambe, the more woorth to be sold,
the sooner the better for eaw that is old.
But if ye doo minde to haue milke of the dame,
till Maie doo not seuer the lambe fro the same.
[Sidenote: Rearing of lambes.]
28
Ewes yeerly by twinning rich maisters doo make,
the lamb of such twinners for breeders go take.
For twinlings[E177] be twiggers, encrease for to bring,
though som for their twigging _Peccantem_[E178] may sing.
[Sidenote: Rearing of calues.]
29
Calues likely that come between Christmas and Lent,
take huswife to reare, or else after repent:
Of such as doo fall betweene change and the prime,[20]
no rearing, but sell or go kill them in time.
[Sidenote: Howsing of cattel.]
30
Howse calfe, and go sockle it twise in a day,
and after a while, set it water and hay.
Stake ragged to rub on, no such as will bend,
then weane it well tended, at fiftie daies end.[21]
31
The senior weaned his yoonger shall teach,
how both to drinke water and hay for to reach.[22]
More stroken and made of when ought it doo aile,
more gentle ye make it, for yoke or the paile.[E179]
[Sidenote: Of gelding.]
32
Geld bulcalfe and ram lamb, as soone as they fall,
for therein is lightly no danger at all.
Some spareth the ton for to pleasure the eie,
to haue him shew greater when butcher shall bie.
[Sidenote: ¶]
33
Sowes readie to farrow this time of the yeere
are for to be made of and counted full deere.
For now is the losse of a fare of the sow
more great then the losse of two calues of thy cow.
[Sidenote: ¶ Rearing of pigs.]
34
Of one sow togither reare few aboue fiue,
and those of the fairest and likest to thriue.
Ungelt of the best keepe a couple for store,
one bore pig and sow pig, that sucketh before.[E180]
[Sidenote: ¶ A way to haue large bréed of hogs.]
35
Who hath a desire to haue store verie large,
at Whitsontide let him giue huswife a charge,
To reare of a sow at once onely but three,
and one of them also a bore let it bee.
[Sidenote: ¶ Gelding time.]
36
Geld vnder the dam, within fortnight at least,
and saue both thy monie and life of the beast.
Geld later with gelders as many one do,
and looke of a doozen to geld away two.
[Sidenote: Gelding of horse coltes.]
37
Thy colts for thy saddle geld yoong to be light,
for cart doo not so, if thou iudgest aright.
Nor geld not but when they be lustie and fat:
for there is a point, to be learned in that.
[Sidenote: Gelding of fillies.]
38
Geld fillies (but tits) er an nine daies of age,
they die else of gelding (or gelders doo rage).
Yoong fils[E181] so likelie of bulke and of bone:
keepe such to be breeders, let gelding alone.
[Sidenote: Reare the fairest of al things.]
39
For gaining a trifle, sell neuer thy store,
what ioy to acquaintance, what pleasureth more?
The larger of bodie, the better for breede:
more forward of growing, the better they speede.
[Sidenote: ¶ Of cow and sow.]
40
Good milchcow, well fed, that is faire and sound,
is yeerely for profit as good as a pound:
And yet by the yeere, I haue prooued er[23] now,
as good to the purse is a sow as a cow.
[Sidenote: ¶]
41
Keepe one and keepe both, with as little a cost,
then all shall be saued and nothing be lost.
Both hauing togither what profit is caught,
good huswifes (I warrant ye) need not be taught.
[Sidenote: ¶]
42[24]
For lamb, pig and calfe, and for other the like,
tithe so as thy cattle the Lord doo not strike.
Or if yee deale guilefully, parson will dreue,
and so to your selfe a worse turne ye may geue.
43
Thy garden plot latelie well trenched and muckt,
would now be twifallowd, the mallowes out pluckt,[25]
Well clensed and purged of roote and of stone,
that falt therein afterward found may be none.
[Sidenote: Wéeding of hopyard.]
44
Remember thy hopyard, if season be drie,
now dig it and weed it, and so let it lie.
More fennie the laier the better his lust,
more apt to beare hops when it crumbles like dust.
[Sidenote: Trimming up arbors.]
45
To arbor begun, and quick setted[26] about,
no poling nor wadling[27] till set be far out.
For rotten and aged may stand for a shew,
but hold to their tackling there doe but a few.[28][E182]
[Sidenote: Sowing of otes. Late sowing not good.]
46
In Janiuere[29] husband that poucheth the grotes
will break vp his laie, or be sowing of otes,
Otes sowen in Janiuere, laie[30] by the wheat,
in May by the hay for the cattle to eat.[31][E183]
47
Let seruant be readie, with mattock in hand,
to stub out the bushes that noieth the land:
And cumbersome rootes, so annoieng the plough,
turne vpward their arses with sorrow inough.
[Sidenote: Breaking up lay in som countrie.]
48
Who breaketh vp timelie his fallow or lay,
sets forward his husbandrie many a way.
This trimlie well ended doth forwardly bring,[32]
not onelie thy tillage, but all other thing.
49[33]
Though lay land ye breke vp when Christmas is gon,
for sowing of barlie[34] or otes therevpon,
Yet hast[e] not to fallow til March be begun,
least afterward wishing it had ben vndun.
50
Such land as ye breake vp for barlie to sowe,
two earthes at the least er ye sowe it bestowe.[35]
If land be thereafter, set oting apart,
and follow this lesson, to comfort thine hart.
51
Some breaking vp laie soweth otes to begin,[36]
to suck out the moisture so sower therein.
Yet otes with hir sucking a peeler is found,
both ill to the maister and worse to som ground.
52
Land arable driuen or worne to the proofe,
and[37] craueth some rest for thy profits behoofe.
With otes ye may sowe it, the sooner to grasse,
more soone to be pasture to bring it to passe.
Thus endeth Januaries husbandrie.
[1] "Broath is still us'd in some Farm Houses for Supper Meat, and
Roast Meat look'd upon as very ill Husbandry."--T.R.
[2] looke not for foyzen. 1577. "_Foyzon_ is Winter Food."--T.R.
[3] "Pease boyling or not boyling is one of the Farmers occult
Qualities; but fresh, and next to it, well dunged Grounds are observed
to produce the best Boylers, perhaps because they retain most
moisture."--T.R.
[4] "By Experience Garden Quicksets are found to be the best, ...
because they are all of an age."--T.R.
[5] "The common time of ending their Slaught (or Slaughter as the
Warreners term it) is _Candlemas_."--T.R.
[6] "The most forward Pea is the Rogue, they are pick'd from the
Hasting and Hotspur."--T.R.
[7] "Since the use of Turneps Cattel need not be hard put to it in
snowy weather as formerly."--T.R.
[8] "This is more proper in Underwood than Pollards, at least more
in use at present; few Pollards perish for want of it, but Runt-wood
will."--T.R.
[9] St. 16 is not in 1577.
[10] "Prime Grass appears commonly in woody moist Grounds, on Hedge
Banks, and is so called from its earliness; when Cattle have tasted
this they begin to loath their dry food. It is often sprung before
_Candlemas_."--T.R.
[11] full a hand. 1577.
[12] "This remedy still is in Practice.... The first indication of
corrupt blood is from the staring Hairs on the Tail near the Rump. Some
instead of Soot and Garlick put a Dock Root, or the Root of a Bears
Foot, which they call a Gargat Root, others flay the Dewlaps to the
very Shoulders."--T.R.
[13] "Large Ant-Hills is much the best shelter for Ewes and
Lambs."--T.R.
[14] "This is understood of Hedge Greens ... a space next the Hedge of