$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

hath been practised also a curiosity, to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and at a little height to draw it through the wall, and spread it upon the south side: conceiving that the root and lower part of the stock should enjoy the freshness of the shade; and the upper boughs, and fruit, the comfort of the sun. But it sorted not; the cause is, for that the root requireth some comfort from the sun, though under earth, as well as the body: and the lower part of the body more than the upper, as we see in compassing a tree below with straw.

432. THE lowness of the bough where the fruit cometh, maketh the fruit greater, and to ripen better; for you shall ever see, in apricots, peaches, or me locotones upon a wall, the greatest fruits towards the bottom. And in France, the grapes that make the wine, grow upon low vines bound to small stakes; and the raised vines in arbours make but verjuice. It is true, that in Italy and other countries where they have hotter sun, they raise them upon elms and trees; but I conceive, that if the French manner of planting low were brought in use there, their wines would be stronger and sweeter. But it is more chargeable in respect of the props. It were good to try whether a tree grafted somewhat near the ground, and the lower boughs only maintained, and the higher continually pruned off, would not make a larger fruit.

433. To have fruit in greater plenty, the way is to graft not only upon young stocks, but upon divers boughs of an old tree; for they will bear great numbers of fruit: whereas if you graft but upon one stock, the tree can bear but few.

434. THE digging yearly about the roots of trees, which is a great means both to the acceleration and melioration of fruits, is practised in nothing but in vines: which if it were transferred unto other trees and shrubs, as roses, etc. I conceive would advance them likewise.

435. IT hath been known, that a fruit-tree hath been blown up almost by the roots, and set up again, and the next year bear exceedingly. The cause of

this was nothing but the loosening of the earth, which comforteth any tree, and is fit to be practised more than it is in fruit-trees: for trees cannot be so fitly removed into new grounds, as flowers and herbs

may.

436. To revive an old tree, the digging of it about the roots, and applying new mould to the roots, is the way. We see also that draught-oxen put into fresh pasture gather new and tender flesh; and in all things better nourishment than hath been used doth help to renew; especially if it be not only better, but changed and differing from the former.

437. IF an herb be cut off from the roots in the beginning of winter, and then the earth be trodden and beaten down hard with the foot and spade, the roots will become of very great magnitude in summer. The reason is, for that the moisture being forbidden to come up in the plant, stayeth longer in the root, and so dilateth it. And gardeners use to tread down any loose ground after they have sown onions, or turnips, etc.

438. IF panicum be laid below and about the bottom of a root, it will cause the root to grow to an excessive bigness. The cause is, for that being itself of a spongy substance, it draweth the moisture of the earth to it, and so feedeth the root. This is of greatest use for onions, turnips, parsnips, and carrots.

439. THE shifting of ground is a means to better the tree and fruit; but with this caution, that all things do prosper best when they are advanced to the better: your nursery of stocks ought to be in a more barren ground than the ground is whereunto you remove them. So all grasiers prefer their cattle from meaner pastures to better. We see also, that hardness in youth lengtheneth life, because it leaveth a cherishing to the better of the body in age: nay, in exercises, it is good to begin with the hardest, as dancing in thick shoes, etc.

440. IT hath been observed, that hacking of trees in their bark, both downright and across, so as you may make them rather in slices than in continued

hacks, doth great good to trees; and especially delvereth them from being hide-bound, and killeth their

moss.

441. SHADE to some plants conduceth to make them large and prosperous, more than sun; as in strawberries and bays, etc. Therefore amongst strawberries sow here and there some borage seed; and you shall find the strawberries under those leaves far more large than their fellows. And bays you must plant to the north, or defend them from the sun by a hedge-row; and when you sow the berries, weed not the borders for the first half year; for the weed giveth them shade.

442. To increase the crops of plants, there would be considered not only the increasing the lust of the earth, or of the plant, but the saving also of that which is spilt. So they have lately made a trial to set wheat; which nevertheless hath been left off, because of the trouble and pains: yet so much is true, that there is much saved by the setting, in comparison of that which is sown; both by keeping it from being picked up by birds, and by avoiding the shallow lying of it, whereby much that is sown taketh no root.

443. It is prescribed by some of the ancients, that you take small trees, upon which figs or other fruit grow, being yet unripe, and cover the trees in the middle of autumn with dung until the spring; and then take them up in a warm day, and replant them in good ground; and by that means the former year's tree will be ripe, as by a new birth, when other trees of the same kind do but blossom. But this seemeth to have no great probability.

444. IT is reported, that if you take nitre, and mingle it with water, to the thickness of honey, and therewith anoint the bud after the vine is cut, it will sprout forth within eight days. The cause is like to be, if the experiment be true, the opening of the bud and of the parts contiguous, by the spirit of the nitre; for nitre is, as it were, the life of vegetables.

445. TAKE seed, or kernels of apples, pears, oranges; or a peach, or a plum-stone, etc. and put

them into a squill, which is like a great onion, and they will come up much earlier than in the earth itself. This I conceive to be as a kind of grafting in the root; for as the stock of a graft yieldeth better prepared nourishment to the graft, than the crude earth; so the squill doth the like to the seed. And I suppose the same would be done, by putting kernels into a turnip, or the like; save that the squill is more vigorous and hot. It may be tried also, with putting onion-seed into an onion-head, which thereby, per haps, will bring forth a larger and earlier onion. 150

446. THE pricking of a fruit in several places, when it is almost at its bigness, and before it ripeneth, hath been practised with success, to ripen the fruit more suddenly. We see the example of the biting of wasps or worms upon fruit, whereby it manifestly ripeneth the sooner.

447. It is reported, that alga marina, sea-weed, put under the roots of coleworts, and, perhaps, of other plants, will further their growth. The virtue, no doubt, hath relation to salt, which is a great help to fertility.

448. IT hath been practised, to cut off the stalks of cucumbers, immediately after their bearing, close by the earth; and then to cast a pretty quantity of earth upon the plant that remaineth, and they will bear the next year fruit long before the ordinary time. The cause may be, for that the sap goeth down the sooner, and is not spent in the stalk or leaf, which remaineth after the fruit. Where note, that the dying in the winter of the roots of plants that are annual, seemeth to be partly caused by the over-expence of the sap into stalk and leaves; which being prevent'ed, they will super-annuate, if they stand warm.

449. THE pulling off many of the blossoms from a fruit-tree, doth make the fruit fairer. The cause is manifest; for that the sap hath the less to nourish. And it is a common experience, that if you do not pull off some blossoms the first time a tree bloometh, it will blossom itself to death.

450. IT were good to try, what would be the effect, if all the blossoms were pulled from a fruit-tree: or