46.

March dust to be sold, Worth ransome of gold. Forgotten month past, Doe now at the last. [Sowing of white peason. 1577.] 1 White peason, both good for the pot and the purse,[1] by sowing too timelie, prooue often the wurse. Bicause they be tender and hateth the cold, prooue March er ye sowe them, for being too bold. Spare eating of meadowe. 2 Spare meadow at Gregorie,[E272] marshes at Pask, for feare of drie Sommer, no longer time ask. Then hedge them and ditch them, bestow thereon pence: corne, meadow and pasture, aske alway good fence. In Lent haue an ey to shéep biters. 3 Of mastiues and mungrels,[E273] that manie we see, a number of thousands too manie there bee. Watch therefore in Lent, to thy sheepe go and looke, for dogs will haue vittles,[2] by hooke or by crooke.[E274] Setting of hops. 4 In March at the furdest, drie season or wet, hop rootes so well chosen, let skilfull go set. The goeler[3] and yonger the better I loue; well gutted[4] and pared, the better they proue. 5 Some laieth them croswise, along in the ground, as high as the knee they doo couer vp round. Some prick vp a stick in the mids of the same, that little round hillock the better to frame. 6 Some maketh a hollownes, halfe a foot deepe, with fower sets in it, set slant wise a steepe: One foot from another, in order to lie, and thereon a hillock, as round as a pie. 7 Five foot from another ech hillock would stand, as straight as a leaueled line with the hand. Let euerie hillock be fower foot wide, the better to come to on euerie side. 8 By willowes[E275] that groweth thy hopyard without, and also by hedges thy meadowes about. Good hop hath a pleasure to climbe and to spred, if Sunne may haue passage to comfort hir bed. Hop tools. 9 Get crowe made of iron, deepe hole for to make, with crosse ouerthwart it, as sharpe as a stake. A hone[5] and a parer, like sole of a boote,[6] to pare away grasse and to raise vp the roote. Graffing. 10 In March is good grafting, the skilfull doo knowe, so long as the wind in the East doo not blowe. From Moone being changed til past be the prime,[7] for grafting and cropping is verie good time. 11 Things graffed or planted,[8] the greatest and least, defend against tempest, the bird[9] and the beast. Defended shall prosper, the tother is lost, the thing with the labour, the time and the cost. Sowing of barlie. 12 Sowe barlie in March, in April and Maie, the latter[10] in sand, and the sooner in claie.[11] What worser for barlie than wetnes and cold? what better to skilfull than time to be bold?[E276] 13[12] Who soweth his barlie too soone or in raine, of otes[13] and of thistles shall after complaine. I speake not of Maie weed,[E277] cockle[E278] and such, that noieth the barlie, so often and much. 14 Let barlie be harrowed, finelie as dust, then workmanly trench it and fence it ye must. This season well plied, set sowing an end, and praise and praie God a good haruest to send. Rowling of barlie. 15 Some rowleth their barlie straight after a raine, when first it appeareth to leauell it plaine. The barlie so vsed, the better doth growe, and handsome ye make it at haruest to mowe. 16 Otes, barlie and pease, harrow after you sowe,[14] for rie harrow first, as alreadie ye knowe.[E279] Leaue wheat little clod, for to couer the head, that after a frost, it may out and go spread. 17[15] If clod in thy wheat wil not breake with the frost, if now ye doo rowle it, it quiteth the cost. But see when ye rowle it, the weather be drie, or else it were better vnrowled to lie. ¶ Gardening. 18 In March and in April,[16] from morning to night, in sowing and setting, good huswiues delight: To haue in a garden, or other like plot, to turn vp their house, and to furnish their pot. ¶ 19 The nature of flowers dame Physick doth shew, she teacheth them all to be knowne to a few. To set or to sowe, or else sowne to remoue, how that should be practised, learne if ye loue. To know good land. 20 Land falling or lieng full South or southwest, for profit by tillage is lightly the best. So garden with orchard and hopyard I finde, that want the like benefit, growe out of kinde. ¶ 21 If field to beare corne a good tillage doth craue, what thinke ye of garden, what garden would haue? In field without cost[E280] be assured of weedes, in garden be suer thou loosest thy seedes. ¶ 22 At spring (for the sommer) sowe garden ye shall, at haruest (for winter) or sowe not at all. Oft digging, remoouing, and weeding (ye see), makes herbe the more holesome and greater to bee. ¶ 23 Time faire, to sowe or to gather be bold, but set or remooue when the weather is cold.[17] Cut all thing or gather, the Moone in the wane, but sowe in encreasing, or giue it his bane. ¶ 24 Now set doo aske watering with pot or with dish, new sowne doo not so, if ye doo as I wish.[E281] Through cunning with dible, rake, mattock, and spade, by line and by leauell, trim garden is made. 25 Who soweth too lateward, hath seldome good seed, who soweth too soone, little better shall speed. Apt time and the season so diuers to hit, let aier and laier[18] helpe practise and wit. ¶ 26[19] Now leekes are in season, for pottage full good, and spareth the milchcow and purgeth the blood. These hauing, with peason for pottage in Lent, thou sparest both otemell and bread to be spent.[E282] ¶ 27 Though neuer so much a good huswife doth care, that such as doe labour haue husbandlie fare. Yet feed them and cram them til purse doe lack chinke, no spoone meat, no bellifull, labourers thinke. Destroie pie, rooks, and rauens nest, etc. 28 Kill crowe, pie and cadow, rooke, buzard and rauen, or else go desire them to seeke a new hauen. In scaling the yoongest, to pluck off his beck, beware how ye climber, for breaking your neck.