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be accelerated in their coming and ripening, there is a double profit; the one in the high price that those things bear when they come early: the other in the swiftness of their returns: for in some grounds which are strong, you shall have a radish, etc. come in a month, that in other grounds will not come in two, and so make double returns.

410. WHEAT also was put into the water, and came not forth at all; so as it seemeth there must be some strength and bulk in the body put into the water, as it is in roots; for grains, or seeds, the cold of the water will mortify. But casually some wheat lay under the pan, which was somewhat moistened by the suing of the pan; which in six weeks, as aforesaid, looked mouldy to the eye, but it was sprouted forth half a finger's length.

411. IT seemeth by these instances of water, that for nourishment the water is almost all in all, and that the earth doth but keep the plant upright, and save it from over-heat and over-cold; and therefore is a comfortable experiment for good drinkers. It proveth also that our former opinion, that drink incorporate with flesh or roots, as in capon-beer, etc. will nourish more easily, than meat and drink taken severally.

412. THE housing of plants, I conceive, will both accelerate germination, and bring forth flowers and plants in the colder seasons: and as we house hotcountry plants, as lemons, oranges, myrtles, to save them; so we may house our own country plants, to forward them, and make them come in the cold seasons; in such sort, that you may have violets, strawberries, peas, all winter: so that you sow or remove them at fit times. This experiment is to be referred unto the comforting of the spirit of the plant by warmth, as well as housing their boughs, etc. So then the means to accelerate germination, are in par ticular eight, in general three.

Experiments in consort touching the putting back or retardation of germination.

413. To make roses, or other flowers come late, it is an experiment of pleasure. For the ancients

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esteemed much of rosa sera. And indeed the November rose is the sweetest, having been less exhaled by the sun. The means are these. First, the cutting off their tops immediately after they have done bearing; and then they will come again the same year about November: but they will not come just on the tops where they were cut, but out of those shoots which were, as it were, water boughs. The cause is, for that the sap, which otherwise would have fed the top, though after bearing, will, by the discharge of that, divert unto the side sprouts; and they will come to bear, but later.

414. THE second is the pulling off the buds of the rose, when they are newly knotted; for then the side branches will bear. The cause is the same with the former; for cutting off the tops, and pulling off the buds, work the same effect, in retention of the sap for a time, and diversion of it to the sprouts that were not so forward.

415. THE third is the cutting off some few of the top boughs in the spring time, but suffering the lower boughs to grow on. The cause is, for that the boughs do help to draw up the sap more strongly; and we see that in polling of trees, many do use to leave a bough or two on the top, to help to draw up the sap. And it is reported also, that if you graft upon the bough of a tree, and cut off some of the old boughs, the new cions will perish.

416. THE fourth is by laying the roots bare about Christmas some days. The cause is plain, for that it doth arrest the sap from going upwards for a time; which arrest is afterwards released by the covering of the root again with earth; and then the sap getteth up, but later.

417. THE fifth is the removing of the tree some month before it buddeth. The cause is, for that some time will be required after the remove for the re-settling, before it can draw the juice; and that time being lost, the blossom must needs come forth later.

418. THE sixth is the grafting of roses in May, which commonly gardeners do not till July; and then

they bear not till the next year; but if you graft them in May, they will bear the same year, but late.

419. THE seventh is the girding of the body of the tree about with some pack-thread; for that also in a degree restraineth the sap, and maketh it come up more late and more slowly.

420. THE eighth is the planting of them in a shade, or in a hedge; the cause is, partly the keeping out of the sun, which hasteneth the sap to rise; and partly the robbing of them of nourishment by the stuff in the hedge. These means may be practised upon other, both trees and flowers, mutatis mutandis.

421. MEN have entertained a conceit that sheweth prettily; namely, that if you graft a late-coming fruit upon a stock of a fruit-tree that cometh early, the graft will bear fruit early; as a peach upon a cherry; and contrariwise, if an early-coming fruit upon a stock of a fruit-tree that cometh late, the graft will bear fruit late; as a cherry upon a peach. But these are but imaginations, and untrue. The cause is, for that the cion over-ruleth the stock quite; and the stock is but passive only, and giveth aliment, but no motion to the graft.

Experiments in consort touching the melioration of fruits, trees, and plants.

WE will speak now, how to make fruits, flowers, and roots larger, in more plenty, and sweeter than they use to be; and how to make the trees themselves more tall, more spread, and more hasty and sudden than they use to be. Wherein there is no doubt but the former experiments of acceleration will serve much to these purposes. And again, that these experiments, which we shall now set down, do serve also for acceleration, because both effects proceed from the increase of vigour in the tree; but yet to avoid confusion, and because some of the means are more proper for the one effect, and some for the other, we will handle them apart.

422. It is an assured experience, that an heap of flint or stone, laid about the bottom of a wild tree, as an oak, elm, ash, etc. upon the first planting, doth

make it prosper double as much as without it. The cause is, for that it retaineth the moisture which falleth at any time upon the tree, and suffereth it not to be exhaled by the sun. Again, it keepeth the tree warm from cold blasts and frosts, as it were in an house. It may be also there is somewhat in the keeping of it steady at the first. Query, If laying of straw some height about the body of a tree, will not make the tree forwards. For though the root giveth the sap, yet it is the body that draweth it. But you must note, that if you lay stones about the stalk of lettuce, or other plants that are more soft, it will over-moisten the roots, so as the worms will eat them.

423. A TREE, at the first setting, should not be shaken, until it hath taken root fully: and therefore some have put two little forks about the bottom of their trees to keep them upright; but after a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good, by loosening of the earth, and, perhaps, by exercising, as it were, and stirring the sap of the tree.

424. GENERALLY the cutting away of boughs and suckers at the root and body doth make trees grow high; and contrariwise, the polling and cutting of the top maketh them grow spread and bushy. As we see in pollards, etc.

425. IT is reported, that to make hasty-growing coppice woods, the way is, to take willow, sallow, poplar, alder, of some seven years growth; and to set them, not upright, but aslope, a reasonable depth under the ground; and then instead of one root they will put forth many, and so carry more shoots upon a stem.

426. WHEN you would have many new roots of fruit trees, take a low tree and bow it, and lay all his branches aflat upon the ground, and cast earth upon them; and every twig will take root. And this is a very profitable experiment for costly trees, for the boughs will make stocks without charge; such as are apricots, peaches, almonds, cornelians, mulberries, figs, etc. The like is continually practised with vines, roses, musk-roses, etc.

427. FROM May to July you may take off the bark of any bough, being of the bigness of three or four inches, and cover the bare place, somewhat above and below, with loam well tempered with horse-dung, binding it fast down. Then cut off the bough about Allhollontide in the bare place, and set it in the ground; and it will grow to be a fair tree in one year. The cause may be, for that the baring from the bark keepeth the sap from descending towards winter, and so holdeth it in the bough; and it may be also that the loam and horse-dung applied to the bare place do moisten it, and cherish it, and make it more apt to put forth the root. Note, that this may be a general means for keeping up the sap of trees in their boughs; which may serve to other effects.

428. IT hath been practised in trees that shew fair and bear not, to bore a hole through the heart of the tree, and thereupon it will bear. Which may be, for that the tree before had too much repletion, and was oppressed with its own sap; for repletion is an enemy to generation.

429. IT hath been practised in trees that do not bear, to cleave two or three of the chief roots, and to put into the cleft a small pebble, which may keep it open, and then it will bear. The cause may be, for that a root of a tree may be, as it were, hidebound, no less than the body of the tree; but it will not keep open without somewhat put into it.

430. It is usually practised, to set trees that require much sun upon walls against the south; as apricots, peaches, plums, vines, figs, and the like. It hath a double commodity; the one, the heat of the wall by reflexion; the other, the taking away of the shade; for when a tree groweth round, the upper boughs over-shadow the lower: but when it is spread upon a wall, the sun cometh alike upon the upper and lower branches.

431. IT hath also been practised by some, to pull off some leaves from the trees so spread, that the sun may come upon the bough and fruit the better. There

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