Thomas Tusser

500 good points of Husbandrie

JUNES ABSRACT

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JUNES ABSRACT

 

WASH sheep for to share,         Let wehat and rie,

that sheep may go bare.         in house lie drie.

 

Though fleese ye take,           Buie turfe and sedge,

no patches make.           or else break hedge.

 

Share lambes no whit,           Good store howse needful,

or share not yit.           well ordered and speedful.

 

If meadow be growne,           Thy barnes repaire,

let meadow be mowne.         make flower faire.

 

Plough early ye may,           Such shrubs as noie,

and then carrie hay.           in sommer destroie.

 

Tis good to be knowne,         Swinge brembles & brakes,

to have all of thine owne.         get forkes and rakes.

Who goeth a borrowing,

goeth a sorrowing.           Spare hedlonds some,

              till harvest come.

See cart in plight,

and all things right.           Cast ditch and pond,

              to lay upon lond.

Make drie over hed,

both hovell and shed.           A LESSON OF HOPYARD

 

 

Of hovell make stack,           Where hops will growe,

for pease on his back.           here learne to knowe.

              Hops many will coome,

In champoin some,           in a roode of roome.

wants elbow rome.

              Hop plot once found,

Hops hate the land,           now dig the ground.

with gravell and sand.

              Hops favoureth malt,

The rotten mold           hops thrift doth exalt:

for hop is worth gold.           Of hops more reede,

              as time shall neede.

The sunne southwest

for the hopyard is best.

 

JUNES HUSBANDRIE

 

WASH sheep (for the better) where water doth run,     Sheepe sharing

and let him go cleanly and drie in the sun.

Then share him and spare not, at two daies an end,

The sooner the better his corpse will amend.

 

Reward not thy sheepe (when ye take off his cote)     Beware of evill sheepe shearers

with twitchis and patches, as broad as a grote.

Let not such ungentlenesse happen to thine,

least flie with hir gentils do make it to pine.

 

Let lambes go unclipped, til June be half worne,     Sheare lambes in Julie

the better the fleeses will grow to be shorne.

The Pie will discharge thee for pulling the rest:

the lighter the sheepe is, then feedeth it best.

 

If meadow be forward, be moving of somw;       Mowing time

but mowe as the makers may well overcome;

Take heede to the weather, the wind and the skie,

if danger approacheth, then cock apace crie.

 

Plough earlie till ten a clock, then to thy hay,

in plowing and carting, so profit ye may.

By little and little, thus dooing ye win:

that plough shall not hinder when harvest comes in.

 

Provide of thine owne to have all things at hand,

least worke and the workman unoccupide stand.

Love seldome to borowe that thinkest to save,

for he that once lendeth twise looketh to have.

 

Let cart be well searched without and within,       Trim wel thy carts.

well clouted and greased, er hay time begin.

Thy hay being carried, though carter had sworne,

carts bottome well borded is saving of corne.

 

Good husbands thay laie to save all things aright,       A hovell is set upon crotches

to stack on the peason, when harvest shall coome.       & covered with poles and And serve thee in winter, more over than that,       straw.

to shut up thy porklings thou mindest to fat.

 

Some barnroome have little, and yardroome as much,

yet corne in the field appertaineth to such:

Then hovels and rikes they are forced to make,

abrode or at home for necessities sake.

 

Make sure of breadcorne (of all other graine),

let drie and well looked to, for mouse and for raine.

Though fitchis and pease, and such other as they,

(for pestering too much) on a hovell ye ley.

 

With whinnes or with furzes thy hovel renew,

for turfe or for sedge, for to bake and to brew:

For charcole and sea cole, as also for thacke,

for tallwood and billet, as yeerlie ye lacke.

 

What husbandlie husband, except they be fooles,       The husbandlie storhouse

but handsome have storehouse, for trinkets and tooles,

And all in good order, fast locked to ly,

what ever is needfull, to find by and by.

 

Thy house and barnes would be looked upon,

and all things amended er harvest come on.

Things thus set in order, in quiet and rest,

shall further thy harvest and pleasure thee best.

 

The bushes ans thorne with the shrubs that do noy,

in woodsere or sommer cut downe to destroy:

But where as decay to the tree ye will none,

for danger in woodsere let hacking alone.

 

At Midsommer, downe with the brembles and brakes,     Mowe down brakes and and and after, abrode with thy forks and thy rakes:       meadow

Set mowers a mowing, where meadow is growne,

the longer now standing the worse to be mowne.

 

Now down with the grasse upon hedlonds about,       Mowe hedlonds at harvest

that groweth in shadow, so ranke and so stout,       or after in the several fields.

But grasse upon hedlond of barlie and pease,

when harvest is ended, go mowe if ye please.

 

Such muddie deepe ditches, and pits in the feeld,

that all a drie sommer no water will yeeld,

By fieing and casting that mud upon heapes,

commodities many the husbandman reapes.

 

A LESSON

WHERE AND WHEN

TO PLANT A GOOD HOPYARD.

 

Whome fancie persuadeth, among other crops,

to have for his spending sufficient of hops,

Must willinglie follow, of choices to chuse,

such lesson approoved, as skilful doo use.

 

Ground gravellie, sandie, and mixed with clay.       Naught for hops.

is naughtie for hops any maner of way;

Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone,

for drines and barrenness, let it alone.

 

Choose soil for the hop of the rottenest mould,       Good for hops

well doonged and wrought, as a garden plot should:

Not far from water (but not overflowne)

this lesson well noted is meete to be knowne.

 

The Sunne in the South, or esle southly and west,

is joy to the hop, as a welcome gest;

But wind in the north or else northly east,

to hop is as ill as a fraie in a feast.

 

Meete plot for a hopyard once found as i told       Now dig thy new hop ground

make thereof account, as of jewell of gold.

Now dig it and leave it, the Sunne for to burne,

and afterward fence it to serve fot that turne.

 

The hop for his profit I thus doo exalt,         The praise of hops

it strengtheneth drinke, and it favoureth malt.

And being well brewed, long kept it will last,

and drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast.