Thomas Tusser

500 good points of Husbandrie

JANUARIES ABSTRACT

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JANUARIES ABSTRACT

 

Bid Christmas adew,         Let Doe go to buck

thy stock now renew         with Conie good luck.

            Spare labour nor monie,

Who killeth a neat,         store borough with conie.

hath cheaper his meat.         Get warrener bound

Fat home fed souse,         to vermin thy ground.

is good in a house         Feed doves, but kill not,

            if loose them ye will not.

Who dainties love         Dove house repaire,

a begger shall proove.         make Doovehole faire.

Who alway selles,         For hop ground cold,

in hunger dwelles.         Dove doong woorth gold.

 

Who nothing save,         Good gardner mine,

shall nothing have.         make garden fine,

            Set garden pease,

Lay durt upon heapes,         and beanes if ye please,

some profit it reapes.         Set repis and Rose,

When weather is hard,         yoong rootes of those.

get muck out of yard.

A fallowe bestowe,         The timely buier

where pease shall growe.       hath cheaper his fier.

Good peason and white,

a fallow will quite.         Some burns without wit,

            some fierless sit.

Go gather quickset,

the yongest go get.         Now season is good

Dig garden, stroy mallow,       to lop or fell wood.

set willow and sallow.         Prune trees some allows

Greene willow for stake       for cattle to brows.

in bank will take.

 

Give sheepe to their fees       Eawes readie to yeane

the misle of trees.         craves ground rid cleane.

            Keep sheep out of briers,

Let lop be shorne         Keep beast out of miers.

that hindreth corne.

Save edder and stake         Keep bushes from bill,

strong hedge to make.         till hedge ye will:

            Best had for thy turne,

For sap as ye knowe.         their rootes go and burne.

let one bough growe.

Next yeare ye may         No bushes of mine,

that bough cut away.         if fence be thine.

 

A lesson good           In stubbed plot,

to encrease more wood.       fill hole with clot.

 

Save crotchis of wud,         Rid grasse of bones,

save spars and stud.         of sticks and stones.

Save hop for his dole,

the strong long pole.         Warme barth give lams,

            good food to their dams,

How ever ye scotch,         Look daily well to them,

save pole and crotch.         least dogs undoo them.

 

From Christmas to May,       Yoong lams well sold,

weake cattle decay.         fat lambs worth goold.

 

With vergis aquaint         Keepe twinnes for breed,

poore bullock so faint;         as eawes have need.

This medcin approoved

is for to be looved.         One calf if it please ye,

            now reared shall ease ye.

Let plaister lie           Calves likely reare,

three daies to trie:         at rising of yeare.

too long if ye stay,         Calfe large and leane

taile rots away.         is best to weane.

 

Calfe lickt take away,         Breede ever the best,

and howse it ye may.         and doo of the rest,

This point I allow         Of long and large,

for sevant and cow.         take huswife a charge.

 

Calves yonger that other,       Good cow & good ground

learne of one another.         yeelds yearly a pound,

            Good faring sow

No danger at all         holds profit with cow.

to geld as they fall.

Yet Michel cries         Who keepes but twaine,

please butchers eies.         the more may gaine.

 

Sowe ready to fare,         Tith justly, good garson,

craves huswives care.         else drive will the parson.

 

Leave sow but five         Thy garden twifallow,

the better to thrive         stroy hemlock and mallow.

 

Weane such for store         Like practise they proove,

as sucks before.         that hops do loove.

Weane only but three

large breeders to bee.         Now make and wand in,

            trim bower to stand in.

Lamb, bulchin, and pig,       Leave wadling about,

geld under the big.         till arbour be out.

 

Learne wit, sir dolt,         Who now sowes otes,

in gelding of colt.         gets gold and groates

            Who sowes in May

Geld yoong thy filly,         gets little that way.

else perish with ginny.

Let gelding alone,         Go break up land,

so large of bone.         get mattock in hand,

By breathly tits         Stub root so tough,

few profit hits.           for breaking of plough.

 

What greater crime         In casting provide,

than losse of time?         for seede lay aside.

            Get dooing friend mine,

Lay land or lease         for stock and vine.

breake up if ye please.

But fallow not yet,         If earth be not soft,

that hast any wit.         go dig it aloft.

            For quamier get bootes,

Where drink ye sowe,         stub alders and rootes.

good tilthe bestowe.

            Hop poles waxe scant,

Small profit is found,         for poles more plant.

by peeling of ground.         Set chestnut and walnut,

            set filbeard and smalnut.

Land past the best

cast up to rest.           Peach, plumtree, & cherie,

            yoong bay and his berie.

            Or set their stone.

            unset leave out none.

 

            Sowe kirnals to beare,

            of apples and peare.

Other short           All trees that bear goom

Remembrances         set now as they coom.

 

Get pulling hooks (sirs)       Now set or remoove

for broome and firs.         such stocks as ye loove.

Pluck broome, broome still,

cut broome, broome kill.       

 

Broome pluckt by and by,

breake up for rie.

Friend ringlr thy hog,

or look for a dog.

 

 

 

OF TREES OR FRUITES TO BE SET OR REMOVED

Apples trees of all sorts         Mulberie

Apricocks             Peaches, white and red

Barberies             Peares of all sorts

Boollesse, black & white         Perareplums, black and yellow

Cheries, red and black           Quince trees

Chestnuts             Respis

Cornet plums             Reisons

Damsens, white and black         Small nuts

Filbeards, red and white         Strawberies, red and white

Goose beries             Service trees

Grapes, white and red           Walnuts

Greene or grasse plums         Wardens, white and red

Hurtillberies             Wheat plums

Medlars or marles

 

Now set ye may

the box and bay

Haithorne and prim

for clothes trim

 

JANUARIES HUSBANDRIE

 

When Christmas is ended, bid feasting adue,         Husbandly lessons

goe play the good husband, thy stock to renue.

Be mindful of rearing, in hope of a gaine,

dame profit shall give thee reward for thy paine.

 

Who both by his calfe and his lamb will be knowne,

may well kill a neate and a sheep of his owne.

And he that can reare up a pig in his house,

hath cheaper his bacon and sweeter his souse.

 

Who eateth his veale, pig and lamb bring forth,

shall twise in a week go to bed without broth.

Unskilful that passe not, but sell away sell,

shall never have plentie ehere ever they dwell.

 

Be greedie in spending, and carles to save,

and shortly be needie and reaie to crave.

Be wilfull to kill and unskilfull to store,

and looke for no foison, I tell theee before.

 

Lay dirt upon heapes, faire yard to be seene,

if frost will abide it, to feeld with it cleene.

In winter a fallow some love to bestowe,

where pease for the pot they intend for to sowe.

 

In making or mending as needeth thy ditch,         Quick set now

get set to quick set it, learne cunningly whitch.

In hedging (where clay is) get stake as ye knowe,

of poplar and willow, for fewell to growe.

 

Leave killing of conie, let Doe go to buck,

and vermine thy burrow, for feare of ill luck.     

Feed dove (no more killing), old Dove house repair,       Keepe cleane thy dove house

save dove dong for hopyard, when house ye make faire.

 

Dig garden, stroy mallow, now may ye at ease,

and set (as a daintie) thy runcivall pease.         Runcival peason

Go cut and set roses, choose aptly thy plot,

the rootes of the youngest are best to be got.

 

In time go and bargaine, lest worser doo fall         Timely provision for fewell

for fewell, for making, for carriage and all.

To buie at the stub is the best for the buier,

more timely provision, the cheaper is fier.

 

Some burneth a load at a time in his hall         Ill husbandrie

some never leave burning til burnt they have all.

Some making of havock, without any wit,

make many poore soules without fier to sit.

 

If frost doo continue, this lesson doth well,         Pruning of trees

for comfort of cattel the fewell to fell:

For everie tree that superfluous bows

now prune for thy neat thereupon to go brows.

 

In pruning and trimming all manner of trees,

reserve to each cattel their properly fees.

If snowe do continue, sheepe hardly that fare,       Mistle and Ivie

crave Mistle and Ivie for them for to spare.

 

Now lop for thy fewell old pollenger growen,       Lopping of pollengers

that hinder the corne or the grasse to be mowen.

In lopping and felling save edder and stake,

thine hedges as needeth to mend or to make.

 

In lopping old Jocham, for feare of mishap,

one bough stay unlopped, to cherish the sap:

The second yeere after then boldly ye may,

for driping his fellowes, that bow cut away.

 

Lop poplar and sallow, elme, maple, and prie,       The propertie of soft wood

well save from cattle, till Sommer to lie.

So far as in lopping, their tops ye doo fling,

so far without planting yoong copie will spring.

 

Such fewell as standing a late ye have bought,

now fell it, and make it, and doo as ye ought.

Give charge to the hewers (that many things mars),

to hew out for crotches, for poles and for spars.

 

If hopyard or orchard ye mindful to have,         Hoppoles and crotches

for hoppoles and crotches in lopping go save.

Which husbandlie spared may serve at a push,

and stop by so having two gaps with a bush.

 

From Christmas, till May be well entered in,

some cattel wax faint, and looke poorely and thin,

And chiefly when prime grasse at first doth appeere,

then most is the danger of moast the whole yeere.

 

Take vergis and heate it, a pint for a cow,         A medcin for faint cattell

bay salt a hand full, to rub tong, ye wot how.

That done, with the salt, let hir drinke of the rest:

this manie times raises the feeble up best.

 

Poore bullock with browsing and naughtily fed,       To fasten loose teeth in a scarce feedeth, hir teeth be so loose in hir head:       bullock

Then slise ye the tail where ye felleth it so soft,

with soot and with garlicke bound to it aloft.

 

By brembles and bushes, in pasture too full,         Ewes upon eaning

poore sheepe be in danegr and looseth their wull.

Now therefore thy ewe, upon lambing so neere,

desireth in pasture that all may be cleere.

 

Leave grubbling 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 hone with the rest, for the fier to burne.

 

In everie greene, if the fence be not thine,

now stub up the bushes, the grasse to be fine.       Stubbing of greenes

Least neighbour doo dailie so hack them believe,

that neiter thy bushes nor pasture can thrive.

 

In ridding of pastures with turfes that lie by,

fill everie hole up, as close as a dy.

The labour is little, the profit is gay,

what ever thr loitering labourers say.

 

The sticks and the stones go gather up cleene,

for hurting of sieth or harming of greene.

For feare of Hew prowler, get home with the rest,

when frost isat hardest, then carriage is best.

 

Yoong broome or good pasture thy ewes doo require,

warme barth and in safeie their lambes doo desire.       Yoong lambes.

Lokke often well to them, for foxes and dogs,

for pits and for brembles, for vermin and hogs.

 

More dainties the lambe, the more woorth to be sold,

the sooner the better for ewe that is old.

But of ye doo minde to have milk of the dame,

till maie doo not sever the lambe fro the same.

 

Ewes yearly by twinning rich masters doo make,       Rearing of lambes

the lamb of such twinners for breeders to take.

For twinlings be twiggers, encrease fo to bring,

though som for their twigging Peccantem may sing.

 

Calves likely that come between Christmas and Lent,     Rearing of calves.

take huswife to reare, or else after repent:

Of such as doo fall between change and the prime,

no rearing, but sell or go kill them in time.

 

Howse calfe, and go sockle it twise in a day,         Howsing of cattel

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.

 

The senior weaned his yoonger shall teach,

how both to drinke water and hay for to reach.

More stroken and made of when ought it do aile,

more gentle ye make it for yoke of the paile.

 

Geld bulcalfe and ramlamb, as soon as they fall,       Of gelding

for therein is lightly no dnager at all.

Some spareth the ton for to pleasure the eie,

to have him shew greater when butcher shall bie.

 

Sowes ready to farrow this time of the yeere

are for to be made of and counted full deere.

For now is the loss of a fare of the sow

more greater than the losse of two calves of thy cow.

 

Of one sow togither reare few above five,         Rearing of pigs

and those of the fairest and likest to thrive.

Ungelt of the best keepe a couple for store,

one bore pig, one sow pig, that sucketh before.

 

Who hath a desire to have store very large,         A way to have large

at Witsuntide let him give huswife a charge,         breed of hogs

To reare of a sow at once onely but three,

and one of them also a bore let it bee.

 

Geld under the dam, withing fortnight at least,       Gelding time

and save both thy monie and life of the beast.

Geld later with gelders as many one do,

and looke of a dozen to geld away two.

 

Thy colts for thy saddle geld yoong to be light,       Gelding of horse coltes

for cart do not so, if thou judgest aright.

Nor geld not but when they be lustie and fat:

for there is a point, to be learned in that.

 

Geld filles (but tits) er an nine days of age,         Gelding of filles

they die esle of gelding (or gelders do rag).

Yoong fils so likelie of bulk and of bone,

keepe such to be breeders, let gelding alone.

 

For gaining a trifle sell never thy store,         Reare the fairest of things

what joye to aquaintence, what pleasureth more?

The larger of bodie, the better for breede:

more forward of growing, the better they speed.

 

Good milchcow, well fed that is faire and sound,       Of sow and cow.

is yeerly for profit as good as a pound:

And yet by the yeere, I have prooved er now,

as good to the purse is a sow as a cow.

 

Keepe one and keepe both, with as little a cost,

then all shall be saved and nothing be lost.

Both having togither what profit is caught,

good huswives (I warrent ye) need not be taught.

 

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 dreve,

and so to your selfe a worse turne ye may geve.

 

Thy garden plot latelie well trenched and muckt,

would now be twifallowed, the mallowes out pluckt,

Well cleased and purged of roote and of stone,

that falt theirin afterward found may be none.

 

Remember thy hopyard, if season be drie,         Weeding of hopyard

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.

 

To arbor begun, and quick setted about,         Trimming of arbors

no ploing nor wadling till set be far out.

For rotten and aged may stand for a shew,

but hold to their tacking there do but a few.

 

In Janivere husband that poucheth the groates       Sowing of otes, Late

will break up his laie, or be sowing of otes,         sowing not good

Otes sowen in Janivere, laie by the wheat,

in May by the hay for the cattle to eat.

 

Let servent be readie, with mattock in hand,

to stub out the bushes that noieth the land:

And cumbersome rootes, so annoieng the plough,

turne upward their arses with sorrow inough.

 

Who breaketh up timely his fallow or lay,         Breaking up of lay in some

sets forward his husbandrie many a way.         countrie

This trimlie well ended doth fowardlie bring,

not onelie thy tillage, but all other thing.

 

Though lay land ye breke up when Christmas is gon,

for sowing of barlie or otes thereupon,

Yet haste not to fallow til March be begun,

least afterward wishing it had been undun.

 

Such land as ye breake up for barlie to sowe,

two earthes at the least er ye sow it bestowe.

If land be therafter, set oting apart,

and follow this lesson, to comfort thine hart.

 

Some breaking up laie soweth otes to begin,

to suck out the moisture so sower therein.

Yet otoes with hir sucking a peeler is found,

both ill to the maister and worse to some ground.

 

Land arable driven or worne to the proofe,

and craveth some rest for thy profits behoofe.

With otes ye may sowe it, the sooner to grasse ,

more soon to be pasture to bring it to passe.