Thomas Tusser

500 good points of Husbandrie

APRILS ABSTRACT

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APRILS ABSTRACT

 

SOME champions laie         Sum cuntries lack ploughmeat,

to fallow in Maie.         and some do want cowmeat.

 

When tilth plows breake,       Small commons and bare,

poore cattle cries creake.       yeelds cattell ill fare.

 

One daie er ye plow,         Som common with geese,

spred compas ynow.         and sheep without fleece.

            Som tits thither bring,

Dome fodder buieth,         and hogs without ring.

in fen where it lieth.

            Some champions agree

Thou champion wight,         as wasp doth with bee.

have cow meat for night.

            Get swineherd for hog,

Set hop his pole,         but kill not with dog.

make deep the hole.         Wher swineherd doth lack.

            corne goeth to wrack.

First, bark go and sell,

er timber ye fell.         All goes to the Devill,

            where shepherd is evill.

Fence copie in,

er heawers begin.         Come home from land,

            with stone in hand

The straightest ye knowe,

for staddles let growe.         Man cow provides,

            wife dairie guides.

Crab tree preserve,

for plough to serve.         Slut Cisley untaught,

            hath whitemeat naught.

Get timber out,

er yeere go about.         Such mistress, such Nan,

            such maister, such man.

Some bringeth in gaines,

some losse beside paines.

 

Run Cissie, fault known,

with more than thine own.

 

APRILS HUSBANDRIE

 

IN Cambridge shire forward to Lincolne shire way,

the champion maketh his fallow in maie,

Then thinking so dooing one tillage woorth twaine,

by forcing of weede, by that means to refraine.

 

If April be dripping, then doo I not hate,

(for him that hath little) his fallowing late.

Else otherwise fallowing timelie is best,

for saving of cattel, of plough and the rest.

 

Be suer of plough to be readie at hand,

er compas ye spread that on hillock did stand.

least drieng so lieng, doo make it decaie,

er ever much water do wash it away.

 

Look now to provide ye of meadows for hay,

if fennes be undrowned, there cheapest ye may.

In fen for the bullock, for horse do not well,

count best the best cheap, wheresoever ye dwell.

 

Provide ye of cowmeate, for cattel at night,

and chiefly where commons lie far out of sight.

Where cattel lie tied without any meat,

that profit by dairiecan never be great.

 

Get into thy hopyard with plentie of poles,       Put poles to your hophills

amongst those same hillocks devide them by doles.

Three ploes to a hillock (I pas not how long)

shall yeild thee more profit, set deeply and strong.

 

Sell bark to the tanner er timber yee fell,       Felling of timber

cut low by the ground or else doo ye not well.

In breaking save crooked, for mill and for ships,

and ever in hewing save carpenters chips.

 

First see it well fenced er hewers begin,

then see it well stadled without and within;

Thus being preserved and husbandlie donne,

shall sooner raise profit, to thee or thy sonne.

 

Leave growing for stadles the likest and best,       Stadling of woods.

though seller and buier dispatched the rest.

In bushes, in hedgerow, in grove and in wood,

this lesson observed is needful and good.

 

Save elm, ash and crabtree, for cart and for plough,

save step for a stile, the the crotch of the bough.

Save hazel for forks, save sallow for rake,

save hulver and thorne, thereof flaile for to make.

 

Make riddence of carriage, er yeere go about,     Discharge thy woods

for spoiling of plant that is newly come out.

To carter (with oxen) this message I bring,

leave oxen abrode for anoieng the spring.

 

Allowance of fodder some countries doo yeeld,

as good for the cattel as hay in the field.

Some mowe up their hedlonds and plots among corne,

and driven to leave nothing, unmowne, or unshorne.

 

Some commons are barren, the nature is such,

and some over laieth the common too much.

The pestered commons small profit doth geeve,

and profit as little some reape I beleeve.

 

Some pester the commons, with jades and with geese,

with hog without ring and with sheep without fleese.

Some loose a daie labour with seeking their own,

some meet with a bootie they would not have known.

 

Great troubles and losses the champion sees,

and ever in brauling, as wasps among bees.

As charitie that way appeereth but small,

so lesse be their winnings, or nothing at all.

 

Where champion wanteth a swineherd for hog,

there many complaineth of naughtie mans dog.

Where ech his own keeper appoints without care,

there corne be destroyed er man be aware.

 

The land is well harted with help of the fold,

for one or two crops, if so long it will hold.

If shepherd would keep them of stroieng of corne,

the walke of his sheep might the better be borne.

 

Where stones be too manie, annoieng thy land,

make servant come home with a stone in his hand.

By daily so dooing, have plentie yee shall,

both handsome for paving and good for a wall.

 

From April beginning, till Andrew be past,         Dairie matters

so long with good huswif, hir dairie doth last.

Good milchcow and pasture, good husbands provide,

the resdue good huswives knowes best how to guide.

 

Ill huswife unskilful to make her own chees,         Ill huswferie

through trusting of others hath this for hir fees.

Her milk pan and creame pot, so slabbered and sost,

that butter is wanting and cheese is half lost.

 

Where some of a cow doo raise yeerlie a pound,

with such sellie huswives no penie is found.

Then dairie maid (Cisley) hir fault being known,

away apace trudgeth, with more than hir own.

 

Then neighbour, for Gods sake, if any you see,

good servant for dairie house, waine her to mee.

Such maister such man, and such mistress such maid,

such husband and huswife, such houses araid,

 

A LESSON FOR

DAIRY MAID CISLEY

OF TEN TOPPINGS GESTS

 

As wife that will           So Cisse that serves

good husband plese,           must marke this note

Must shun with skill           What fault deserves

such gests as these.           a brushed cote.

 

Gehezie, Lots wife, and Argusses eies,     Ten toppings gests unsent for

Tom piper, poore Cobler, and Lazerus thies,

Rough Esau, with Mawdlin, and Gentils that scall,

With Bishop that burneth, thus knowe ye them all.

 

These toppingly gests be in number but ten,

As welcome in dairie as Beares among men.

Which being descried, take heede of you shall,

For danger of after claps, after that fall.

 

Gehezie his sickness was whiteish and drie,     White not drie

such cheeses, good Cisley, ye floated too nie.

 

Lease Lot with her pliier (good Cisley) alone,     Too salt

much saltnes in whitemeat is ill for the stone.

 

If cheeses in the dairie have Argusses eies       Full of eies

tell Cicily the fault in hir huswiferie lies.

 

Tom Piper hath hoven and puffed up cheekes       Hoven

if cheese be so hoven, make Cissie to seeke creekes.

 

Poore Cobler he tugged his leatherlie trash,       Tough

if cheese abide tugging, tug Cisley a crash.

 

If Lazer so lothsome in cheese be espied       Full of spots

let baies amend Cisley, or shift hir aside.

 

Rough Esau was hearie from top to the fut,       Full of heares.

if cheese so appeareth, call Cisley a slut.

 

As Mawdlin wept, so would Cisley be drest,       Full of Whey

for whey in hir cheese, not hald enough prest.

 

If gentils be scrauling, call magget the pt,       Full of gentils

if cheeses have gentils, at Cissie by and by.

 

Blesse Cissie (good mistres) that Bishop doth ban,     Burnt to the pan.

for burning the milk of hir cheese to the pan.

 

It thou (so oft beaten)         I will no more threaten,

amendest by this:         I promise thee Cis.

 

Thus dairie maid Cisley, rehersed ye see,

what faults with ill huswife, in dairie house bee.

of market abhorred, to household a griefe,

to maister and mistris, as ill as a thiefe.