Melons. SINCE Melons are the most precious Fruits that your Kitchen Garden affords, I think it most proper to discourse of them in the Front of this Chapter, & instruct you how you ought to govern them in this our Climate, for which alone, I have calculated all these observations passing by those which (differing from ours) may possibly fill you with doubt, should I confound you with the manner how they order them in the hotter Countreyes, different from ours, more temperate, and cold in respect to these delicate fruits.

Seeds. In order to this intention of ours, which is, that we may have them excellent: You must diligently enquire after the best seeds, such as you may procure out of Italy, from Lions, Tours, Anjou, Champagne, and other places, where men emulate one another who shall have the best Melons. Also to have of all the kindes, Sucrin, Morin, Melonnes, Grenots, white, wraught, or Embrod'red, Ribb'd, and others, even to the locking up of those seedes whose fruite has pleased you; for some affect them of one tast, which another will reject, and hold worth nothing. One loves to eat them a little greene, another would have them very ripe. And therefore you shall furnish your self with such kindes as are most agreeable to your tast, and as thrive and ripen best in your ground, which is the thing you must chiefly respect; for oftentimes there comes such raines from August as uterly spoyl them; depriving them both of odor, savor, and colour, filling them so with water that they are not to be eaten, and • ipening them so altogether, that they are only • it to be given to horses, who extreamly affect them; In briefe, these rains spoyl, and utterly destroy your Meloniere, where you have bestowed so much care, and the paines of five or six moneths are lost, without gratifying you with the least of your hopes; and therefore you should endeavour to have them early that you may prevent these inconveniences.

In those Countryes where they raise great store with little trouble; but plant them in the open ground, as we do Cabbages, as soon as the rains come, they give over eating them, and think them as bad as poyson.

Plo • . To begin then your Meloniere, or Melon Plot, you shall choose a place in your garden the most secured from pernicious winds, which you shall close in with a Reede-hedge handsomely bound in Pannells, which you shall set up with sufficient stakes or posts fixed in the ground, and sustained, lest the windes overturne them: To this Enclosure you must make a door, which you shall keep under lock and key, that none molest your Plantation; and particularly to keep out Women-kinde at certaine times, for reasons you may imagine.

F • gure The Figure at the Frontispiece of this treatise, will easily instruct you in what manner you should inclose your Melon ground.

In this Parke, which may be of what extent you think good, you shall make beds of horse-dung, such as you have provided the winter before and heaped up together in some place neer your Meloniere, as fast as it is throwne forth of the stable.

Season. About midd-February you shall begin to prepare a bed for the seeds, taking dung hot from the stable, and of that of your foresaid heape, mingling them together, that the heat of the fresh may communicate it self to the other.

Beds. Make your Bed the whole length of your Melon ground, four foot large leaving a path about it of three foot wide, that you may have place to put hot dung when you perceive the bed to languish, and that it begins to coole overmuch.

This bed handsomly made, and trodden with the feet to excite the heat, you must cover the • op of it with (neer four inches thick) of excellent mould, or rather with that rich stuff, which comes from a last years bed mingled with a little of the purest mould you can procure: This composition you must spread, keeping a board to the side and margent of the bed, and clapping the earth down with your hand against the board, to render it the more firme and even.

Your Bed thus prepared, of about a yard high you shall suffer to repose till it has passed its greatest heats; which may continue two or three dayes, more, or lesse, according to the temper of the season.

The extreamity of heat past (which you shall discover by the sinking of the bed and by examining it with your finger) you will easily judge if it be well qualified for your seed: For if you cannot suffer your finger in it, it is yet too hot, and it ought to be but tepid, but not qui • e cold, in which case, you mast heat it again by applying new made dung immediately to the sides of your bed in the passage about it, as I before have described.

The bed in perfect temper, and your seeds steeped in good Wine-Vinagre, or Cow-milk eight and fourty howers, every species apart by themselves: You shall sowe them at one end of your bed, reserving the rest, for the other seeds whereof I shall speak hereafter.

Sowing. Draw then upon your Terras, narrow furrowes with the point of your finger quite crosse your bed; But let the lines be six inches asunder, and as even as you can, which you may facilitate with the help of a Rule.

Upon every of these lines make three holes in the earth or Terras, joyning your fingers together in fashion of a hens-rump, and in each of these holes put three or four Melon-seeds, all of a sort.

Upon the Intervalls 'twixt the lines, which I advised you to leave, you may sow Lettice-seeds for early sallets, in other Chervill; And you may fringe the whole bed about with purslaine; for these herbs will be very forward, and are to be taken up very young, least they suffocate your Melon-plants, but this will spare you a weeding, and will be a kind of dressing to them also.

Covering. Be carefull to cover your Bed every night, and when the weather is bad, with hurdles made of straw, or close matts, which are to be supported with ribs, and arches of poles or small rafters layd crosse into forkes fixed in the ground, at the sides of the Bed.

You shall not approach these Coverings neerer then four inches to your bed; if it happen to freez or snow, you shall then fill the whole vacuum with fresh and newly drawn dung, till the weather be more kind.

But if your seeds burn, by reason of the too great heat of your bed, (which you shall soon perceive, for they ought not to be long in the ground) you shall sow them all over again, and heat the Bed a new by the sides, with hot dung, as you have been taught.

Season. The perfect season to sowe Melon-seeds, is in the full of February.

When your plants begin to peep you shall cover them with pretty large Drinking-Glasses, leaving a little passage for the Ayr 'twixt the Glasse and the Earth, least otherwise, they suffocate and tarnish.

Thus you shall let them grow to the fourth or sixth leafe before you remove them.

Transplanting. They are Transplanted after four several fashions. First upon the Beds, which you must prepare at t • e side 〈◊〉 this Genial bed, and all together: Make holes in the middle of these beds four foot asunder, and in each of these holes put in half a bushel of excellent rich mould without making your whole • ed of it, and in this, you shall Transplant your Melons, taking them dextrously from the Nursing-bed with a good clod of earth about the noots. In the Evening about sun-set will be the most covenient time for this purpose, and if it may, let it be after a fair day, for it will much improve your plants.

This done, shelter the beds from the sun for three or four dayes following, but you must water them from the first day of their planting that they may take hold and spring the sooner.

Then you shall cover them with wider glasse Bells till the fruit be big, and indeed, as long as the plant may be contained under it, leaving it a little ayr 'twixt the Bell and the bed for fear of choaking the Plant, unlesse the bell have a hole at the top, which you may stop at night.

From ten in the Morning till four in the Afternoon, you may take off the Bells, to accquaint them with the ayr and fortifie your Melons against unseasonable weather, but you must cover them again in the Evening.

Stormes. There sometimes happen such storms of hail as crack all the Bells, and to prevent this, some are provided with covers made of straw of the same shape, to clap over the glasses at night, to prevent this accident.

Bells. Others make Bells of Earth, but I do no way approve of this invention, for it is not possible that the sun should sufficiently penetrate this earth, as it doeth the Glasse: They may pretend them for the night onely and to pervent hayl, and that indeed with better reason.

If you perceive your plant to languish, and not improve, water it within halfe a foot of its roote, with water where in Pigeons dung has been steeped.

• runing Your Melons now reasonable strong, choose out the prime shoots (which will be in number equal to your seeds) the rest you must gueld and prune off, and when you perceive three or four Melons knotted upon one shoot, you shall stop that vine pinching a knott above that of the fruit, then extend all the other shoots of your plants, spreading them upon every part of your Bed, that they may nourish the fruit with more ease, which when it is grown as big as your fist you shall forbear to water any longer, unlesse it be in some excessive dry season, when you perceive the leaves burne, and that the plant it self scorches; in such case, you may refresh every languishing foot with a little water.

You must place a Tyle under every Melon, the better to fashion them, and advance their maturity by the reflection of the sun from it, and this is a thing which cannot be so well upon a dung-bed, (in which some Transplant and force them) besides they will be much Dryer, and lesse participate of the loathsome quality of the dung.

You shall never suffer any small new shoot or string to draw away the Sap from your leading plant, but nip it off immediately, unlesse it be that your fruit lies naked, and too much exposed, and that it stand in need of any leaves to accelerate its growth & preserve it in temper.

Transplanting. The second Method of Transplanting Melons, is to make, neer the end of summer, trenches of about 2 foot deep, and four foot large, (as they do in Anjou) leaving a square of three foot between each of them, to cast the mould upon, which you must form into a ridge somewhat round, in form of an Asses-back, by which name the French call them. Then you shall fill the trench with good dung, and very rotten earth, scoarings of ditches, which has laine two or three years mellowing in the raines and frosts.

Season. Then in March when the Winter has sufficiently ripened the foresaid earth, you shall stir and mingle that which lyes in the ridge with the ditch-scouring adding to it new dung well consumed, and so fill up your trenches with this mixture, and let it be kept well weeded till the season that you transplant your Melons on it, as I have before instructed you.

Transpla • ting. There is yet a third fashion a great deale more easy then this, and which I have found as succesfull, as any of the former two, and which hath afforded me store of excellent and high tasted Melons every year, (but attribute the principall cause of it, to the goodnesse of my soil which is Sandy, but richly improv'd by a long cultivation.) There is no more difficulty in the business, then to give the ground three or four dressings before and after Winter, and at the time of Transplanting to make pits in the middle of the beds, which you must fill with a bushell of the mould, and halfe dung, of an old hot-bed, and in this to set your plants after the manner I have taught you.

Wa • ring. There are a world of curiosities in transplanting of Melons, some place them in vessells of earth, pierced full of holes, and filled with excellent mould, and so change their beds when they are over chilled, others in baskets of the same shape, and some again, are so nice about them as would weary the most laborious Gardiner.

Ga • hering If during the excessive heats you perceive that your Melons suffer for want of refr • shment, and scald (as they term it) it will be good to to afford a watring to exery root, but this only in case of extream necessity, and very rarely.

To k • ow when your Melon is fit to be gather'd, you shall perceive him to be ripe when the stalke seem • as if it would part from the fruit, when they begin to gild and grow Yellow underneath, when the small shoot which is at the same knot withers, and when approching to the fruit, you be saluted with an agreable odor. But such as are accustom'd, and frequent the Melonieres judge it by the eye, observing only the change of their colour and the intercostal yellowness, which is a sufficient index of their maturity.

Those Melons which are full of Embrodery and Characters are commonly twelve or fifteen dayes a fashioning, e're they be perfectly ripe. The Morins grow yellow some days before they be fit to gather.

For their gathering, let it be according as they turne; If to be conveyed far off you shall gather him instantly upon his first change of colour, for they will finish their ripening by the way. But if he be spent immediately, gather them thrrough-ripe, putting them into a bucket of Water drawn new out of the well, and let them refresh themselves there, as you would treat bottles of Wine, since comming newly from the Melonieres, they are sun-heated, and nothing so quick and agreable to be eaten.

Others which you must gather as fast as they ripen may be layd upon a board in some coole place, and spent according to their maturity.

You shall remember to leave the joynt which holds to the stalk of every Melon, with two or three leaves for ornaments, and be carefull not to break off the stalk, least the Melon languish, (as a cask of Wine unbunged) and loose the richnesse of its gust.

Visi • i • d and 〈◊〉 . You must not think it much to visit your Meloniere at the least four times a day when your Melons begin to ripen, lest they passe their prime, and lose of their tempting, becoming lank and flashy.

Choice. To choose a perfect good Melon it must neither be too green nor overripe; let him be well nourished, and have a thick & short stalk, that he proceed of a Vigorous plant, not forced with too great heat, Weighty in the hand, firme to the touch, dry, and of a Vermilion hue within. Lastly that it have the flavor of that pitchy mixture wherewith seamen dresse their cordage.

Seeds. Remember to reserve the seeds of all such Mellons as you found to be excellent and the most early, (as before I advertis'd you) preserve them carefully, taking those which lodged at the sunny side, they are better at two or three years old then at one.

Cowcumbers. Cowcumbers are sown and raised upon the same bed, and at the same time with Melons; having before imbibed the seeds in either cow or breast milk. There are of white and green, which they call Parroquets: You shall forbear to gather some of your fairest, whitest, longest and earliest fruit, but leave them for seed, letting them ripen upon their own Stalks as long as the plant continues, which will be till the first frosts: As for the Parroquets, they may all be spent, since the seeds of the white Cowcumbers do sufficiently degenerate into them.

They are transplanted also as Melons are both in beds and in open ground, but they must be exceedingly watered, to make them produce abundantly; The vines and superfluous shoots must be guelded, the false flowers which will never knot into fruit are to be nipped off.

The first colds bring the Mildew upon them, which is when the leaves become white and mealy, a signe that they are neer their destruction.

Gather them according to your spending, for they will grow bigger every day, but withall, harder, and the seeds more compacted renders the fruit less agreeable to the tast: They are then in perfection a little before they begin to grow yellow.

Pumpeons. Pumpeons are raised also upon the hot-bed, and are removed like the former, but for the most part upon plain ground: being placed in some spacious part of your Garden because their shoots and tendrells straggle a great way before they knot into fruit.

Transplanting. When you transplant them make their pits wide enough asunder, twelve foot or there about, and lay two bushells of rich soyle to every plant; because of the strength of the plant; Water them abundantly.

Ga • hering. The time of gathering them is in their perfect maturity, which is about August, nor do they spoyl at all by lying upon the earth, but become daily riper by it.

When the first cold begins to come, gather them in a Morning and heape them one upon another, that they may drie in the sun, and afterwards carry them into some temperate Roome upon boards, where let them ly without touching one another: above all, preserve them from the frost, for that will immediately perish them.

If you have plenty, and abound, you may put it into your ordinary House-hold bread or that of your owne table. But first you must boyle it after the same manner as you prepare it to Fry, only a little more tender, then drain the water from it, and wet your flower with this mash and so make your bread. It wil be of better colour, and better relish being a little Dow, and is very wholesome for those who stand in need of refreshment.

There is a small kind of Pumpeon which knots into fruit neer the foot without trailing, and bears abundantly: they must be guelded leaving none but the fairest.

Poitirons a kind of round Pumpeon or Citrovill. Potirons white and coloured, Priest-capps, Spanish trumpets, Gourds and the like, are to be order'd as you doe Pumpeons, with this only difference, that some of them would be stalked, and not suffered to ramp upon the ground.

Seed. The seeds of these, as also of pumpeons are to be saved, as you spend their fruite, but it must be carefully cleansed and dried in the air, and secured from mice which devour these seeds as well as those of Melons and cowcumbers.

Cabbage. THere are so many severall sorts of Cabbages, that you shall hardly resolve to have them all in your Garden, for they would employ too great a part of your ground, and therefore it will be best to make choyce of such as are most agreable to your tast, and that are the most delicate and easiest to boyle, since the ground which produces them, & the water which boyles them, renders them either more or lesse excellent.

Seed. We have seede brought us out of Italy, and we have some in France, those of Italy are the Coleflower, those of Rome, Verona, and Milan, The Bosse, the long Cabbage, of Genoa, the curled and others.

In France we have the ordinary headed Cabbage of severall sorts, and some that do not head at all, and therefore I think it necessary to treat here particularly of them all, as briefly as I can.

Coleflowers. I will begin with Coleflowers as as the most precious: Seed. They bring the seede to us out of Italy, and the Italians receive it from Candia and other Levantine parts, not but that we gather as good in Italy and France also; but it dos not produce so large a head, and is subject to degenerate into the bosse cabbages, and Na • ets and therefore it were better to furnish one self out of the levant either by some friend, or other correspondent at Rome: The Linnen Drapers and Millaners of Paris can give you the best directions in this affaire which traffick in those places, Linnen, Lace, and Gloves.

To discover the goodnesse of the seed (which is the newest) it ought to be of a lively colour, full of oyle, exactly round neither shrivled, small or dried, which are all indications of its age, but of a broun hue, not of a bright red which shews that it never ripened kindly upon the stalke.

Sowing. Being thus provided with good seede, sow it as they do in Italy or France. The Italians sow it in cases and shallow tubes in the full moon of August; It comes speedily up, and will be very strong before Winter: when the Frosts come remove them into your Cellar, or Garden-house, till the Spring, and that the Frosts are gone, and then transplant them into good mould; thus you shall have white, very fair heads, and well conditioned before the great heats of Sommer surprize them.

The Italians stay not so long, as till their heads have attained their utmost growth, but pull them up before, and lay them in the Cellar, interring all their roots and stalks to the very head; ranging them side by side and shelving, where they finish their heads, and will keep a long time; whereas if they left them abroad in the ground, the heats would cause them run to seed.

The French are satisfyed to have them by the end of Autumn keeping them to eat in the Winter: not but that (being early raised) they have some which head about Iuly; but the rest grow hard and tough by reason of the extream heat, and improve nothing for want of moysture, producing but small and trifling Heads, and most commonly none at all. And therefore I counsel you to sowe but a few upon your first Bed in the Meloniere thinly, sowing them thinly in li • es, four fingers asunder, and covering them with the mould. Two or three ridges shall abundantly suffice your store.

Towards the end of April, when your Melons are off from their beds and transplanted, you may renew your sowing of Coleflowers, (as you were taught before) these will head in Autumn, and must be preserved from the Frosts, to be spent during the Winter.

Removing. You must stay before you remove them till the leaves are as large as the Ralme of your hand, that they may be strong. Pare away the tops of them, and earth them up to the very necks, that is, so deep that the top leaves appear not above three fingers out of the ground, or to be more intelligible, you shall interre them to the last and upmost knot; Moreover you must hollow little Basins of about half a foot Diameter, and four fingers deep at the foot of each stalk, that the moysture may passe directly to the Root when you water them, it being unprofitably employed elsewhere.

Transplanting. The just distance in transplanting is three foot asunder; two ranges are sufficient for each Bed: But be careful to keep them weeded and dug as often as they require it, till the leaves cover the ground, and are able to choke the weeds that grow under them.

If you make Pits in the places where you remove them, aud bestow some good Soil (as I described in Melons and Cucumbers) they will the better answer your expectations, for they will produce much fairer heads.

Cabbage. Watring. All sorts of Cabbages whatever they be, must be carefully watred at first, for a few dayes after their planting that they may take the better root, which you shall then perceive, when their leaves begin to erect, and flag no longer upon the ground.

Sowing. All kindes of Cabbages are to be sown upon the Melon bed, whilst the heat remains, that they may cheq and spring the sooner, sowe them therefore very thin in travers lines cross your Melon bed.

In April you shall sowe fresh upon the same bed and place where your Melons and Cucumbers stood.

Birds. Now forasmuch as the Birds are extreamly greedy to devour their seeds as soon as they peep, because they bear the husk of it upon the tops of their leaves; I will teach you how you may preserve them. Some spread a Net over the Beds, sustaining it half a foot above the surface: others stick little Mills made of Cards, (such as Children in play run against the winde with) and some make them with thin Chips of Firre, such as the Comfit makers boxes are made withall, tying to the tree or Pole which bears it some Feathers, or thing that continually trembles; this will extremely affright the Birds in the day time, and the Mice in the night; for the least breath of winde will set them a whirling, and prevent the mischief.

Wormes. There breeds besides in these beds a winged Insect, and Palmer worms, which gnaw your seeds and sprouts: To destroy these Enemies, you should place some small vessels, as be • r glasses, and the like, sinking them about three fingers deeper then the surface of the bed, and filling them with water within two fingers of the brim, and in these they will fall and drown themselves as they make their subterranean passages.

Large sided cabbages. The large sided Cabbages, shall not be sowne till May, because they are so tender, and if they be strong enough to be removed by the begining of Iuly they will head in Autumn: To my Gusto there is no sort of Cabbage comparable to them, for they are speedily boyled, and are so delicate, that the very grossest part of them melts in ones mouth: If you eat broth made of them, Fasting, with but a little bread in it, they will gently loosen the belly, and besides, what ever quantity of them you eat, they will never offend you; Briefly, tis a sort of Cabbage, that I can never sufficiently commend, that I may encourage you to furnish your Garden with them rather then with many of the rest.

VVhite cabbage. Of the White headed Cabbage, those which come out of Flanders are the fairest and of these one of the heads produced in a rich mould hath weighed above fourty pounds.

Those of Aubervilliers are very free, and a delicate meate.

There is another sort of Cabbage streaked with red veines, the stalk whereof is of a purple colour when you plant it, and they seem to me, the most naturall of all the rest, for they pome, close to the ground and shoot but few leaves before they are headed, growing so extreamly close, that they are almost flat at top.

Red cabbage. The red Cabbage should likewise have a little place in your Garden, for its use in certain diseases.

Pefumed cabbage. There is yet another sort of Cabbage, that cast a strong musky Perfume, but bear small heads, yet are to be prized for their excellent odor.

The pale tender Cabbages are not to be sown till August, that they may be removed a little before the Winter, where they may grow and furnish you all the winter long, and especially during the greater Frosts, which do but soften, mellow, and render them excellent meat.

They plant also all those Italian kindes, of which theA long excellentt cabbage. Pancaliers are most in esteem, by reason of their perfum'd relish.

Planting. To plant all these sorts of Cabbages, the ground deeply trenched and well dunged beneath; you shall tread it out into beds of four foot large; and within a foot of the margent, you shall make a small trench, four fingers in depth, and of half a foot large, angular at the bottome, like a Plough-Furrow new turned up: In this Trench (towards the Evening of a fair day) you shall make holes with a Setting stick, and so plant your Cabbages, sinking them to the neck of the very tenderest leaves; having before pared off their Tops. Place them at a convenient distance, according to their bignesse and spreading; then give them diligent Waterings, which you shall pour into these furrowes only; since it would be but superfluous to water the whole bed.

A man may transplant them confusedly in whole quarters, especially the paler sort, for the frosts; but it is neither so commodious as in beds for the ease of watring them, nor for the distinction of their species: Be carefull to take away all the dead leaves of your Cabbages, as well that they may looke handsomely, as to avoid the ill sents which proceed from their corruption, which breeds and invites the Vermine, Snaile, Frogs and Toads, and the like which greatly endamage the Plants.

Seed. When their heads and pomes are formed, if you perceive any of them ready to run to seede, draw the plant half out of the ground, or tread down the Stem, till the cabbage inclines to one side, this will much impead its seeding, and you may mark those Cabbages to be first spent.

For the seeds, reserve of your best Cabbages, transplanting them in some warm place, free from the Winter winds, during the greater frosts, and covering them with Earthen Pots, and warm soyl over the pots: But when the weather is mild, you may sometimes shew them the ayr, and reinvigorate them with the sun, being carefull to cover them again in the evening, least the frost surprise them.

Others you shall preserve in the house, hanging them up by their rootes about a fourtnight, that so all the water that lurks amongst the leaves may drop out, which would otherwise rot them. That season past bury them in ground half way the stalk, ranging them so neer as they may touch each other.

For those which arive to no head you need only remove them, or leave them in the places where they stand, they will endure the Winter well enough, and run to seed betimes.

When the seed is ripe (which you will know by the drinesse of the swads which will then open of themselves) you shall gently pull up the Plant, drawing it by the stalks, and lay them aslope at the foot of your Hedges or Walls to dry, and perfect their maturity: but it w • ll not be amisse to fasten them with some small twig of an Ozyer, for fear the Winde fling them down, and disperse a great deale of the Seeds.

Season of sowing. In August you shall sowe Cabbages to head, upon some bed by it self, there to passe the Winter, as in a Nursery, till the Spring, when you must plant them forth in the manner I have already taught: and by this means you will have headed Cabbages betimes, especially provided that you be careful in well ordering them.

Insects. There are several little Animals which gnaw and indammage Cabbages, as well whilst they are yet young and tender, as when they be arrived to bigger growth; as a certain green hopping Flie, Snails, Ants, the great Flea, &c. The best expedient I finde to destroy these Insects, is, the frequent watering, which chaces them away, or kills them: For during the great heats, you shall see your Cabbages dwindle and pine away, every day importun'd by these Animals.

At the full of the moon every Moneth, if the weather be fair, it is good to sowe your Cabbages, that you may prevent the disorders, which these Devourers bring upon them: and you may do it without expence, by sowing them upon the borders under your Fruit Trees, which you must frequently dig, and besides the waterings which you must bestow upon your young Plants, will wonderfully improve your Trees.

There are a curious sort of Cabbages, which bear many heads upon the same stalk, but they are not so delicate as the other.

When yo • have cut off the heads of your Cabbages, if you will not extirpate the Trunk, they will produce small small sets, which the Italians call Broccoli, the French des Broques, and are ordinarily eaten in Lent in Pease-Pottage, andSmall dishes of severall things which stand twixt the greater to garnish the table. Intermesses at the best Tables.

Letice. There are almost as many sorts of Lettuce as there be of Cabbages and therefore I have ranged them together in the same chapter.

For such as harden and grow into heads we have the Cabbage-Lettuce and a sort that beares divers heads upon the same stalk.

The Cockle Lettuce, the Genoa, Roman and the curled lettuce, which pome like Succory.

Others that grow not so close, as a sort of curled lettuce and severall other species: Others which must be bound to render them white, such as the Oake-leafed, the Royal and Roman.

Sowing. Lettuce may be sown all the year long, Winter excepted: for from the time that you begin to sow them upon your first Bed (as I have describ'd it in the Article of Melons) to the very end of October, you may raise them.

Transplanting. To make them pome and head like a Cabbage, you shall need onely to transplant them, half a foot or little more distant, and this you may do upon the borders, under your Hedges, Trees, and Palisades, without employing any other quarter of your Garden.

During the excessive heat of the year, it will be difficult to make them head, unlesse you water them plentifully, because the Season prompts them to run to seed.

Those of Genoa are to be preferred before all others, by reason of their bignesse, and for that they will endure the Winter above ground, being transplanted; or you may make use of them in Pottage, and for that they furnish you with heads from the very end of April.

For such as do not come to head at all you need only sow them, and as they spring, to thin them (that is extirpate the supperfluous) that those which remain may have sufficient soope to spread: some transplant them, but it is lost labour, the Plant being so easily raised.

Roman lettuce. Heading. The Lettice-Royall would be removed at a foot or more distance, and when you perceive that the plants have covered all the ground then in some fair day, and when the morning dew is vanish't you shall tie them in two or three several places one above another, which you may do with any long straw, or raw-hemp, and this at severall times, viz. not promiseuously, as they stand, but choosing the fairest plants first to give roome and ayr to the more feeble, and by this means they will last you the longer: The first being blanched, and ready, before the other are fit to bind.

Blanching. If you would blanch them with more expedition, you shall cover every plant with a small earthen Pot fashioned like a Gold-Smiths Crusible, and then lay some hot soyl upon them; and thus they will quickly become white.

Seed. Lettuce-seed is very easily gathered, because the great heats cause it to spring sooner up then one would have it, especially the earliest sowne. Pull them therefore up as soone as you perceive that above halfe of their flowers are past, and lay them a ripening against your hedges, and in ten or twelve dayes they will be drie enough to rub out their seed betwixt your hands, which being clensed from the husks and ordure, preserve, each kind by it selfe.

Pot-herbs. Beet-leeks WE will begin with the white Beet or Leeks as being the greatest of all the Pot-hearbs, and of which there is more spent then of any of the rest.

The white Beet or Beet-Card (for so some will call it in imitation of the Picards, who really merit the honour to be esteemd the best and most curious Gardiners for herbs, before any other of all the Provinces of France: Be it that the • r soyle and climate produce more, or that they are more industrious. Their Hearbs are a great deal more fair and large, then in other places. Season. I have seen of those amongst them that have been of eight inches Circumference, or little lesse, and in length proportionable to their thickness) is to be sown at Spring when the Frosts are quite gone. Transplanting. You may make use of your Hedge-borders for this purpose, and when they come to have six leaves, you shall transplant them in ground that has been deeply trenched the Autumn before, and lain mellowing all the Winter. Before you remove them, soyl the ground very well, and then giving it another digging, turn the dung into the bottom, then taking them out of your Nursery beds, cut off their tops and transplant them in quarters, two ranges in a Bed; and a yard distant, making a small Trench or Line, as I shewed before, concerning removing of Cabbages, which I forbear to repeat to avoid prolixity.

If you would have them abound in fair Cards, you must keep them well hou'd, Weeded, and watred when you perceive they need it.

Gathering. You must not cut them when you gather, but pull them off from the plant, drawing them a little aside, and so you shall not injure the stalk, but rather improve those which remain: a little time will repair its loss.

Plant not those for Cards which you shall finde green, for they degenerate.

Sowing. You may sowe them all the Summer, that you may have for the Pot, and to farce such as are tender: also at the end of August, which you may let stand all the winter as a Nursery, and transplant at Spring, which will furnish you with Leeks very early.

red Beets. There is a Red Beet if you desire to have of them, for Curiosity rather then for use, because they produce but small Cards, which being boyled, lose much of their tincture, becoming pale, which renders them lesse agreeable to the Palat, and to the Eye, then the white.

Seed. For the Seed, leave growing of the whitest and largest, without cropping any of their leaves, which you shall support with a good stake, lest its weight overthrow it, to the prejudice of the Seeds which would then rot in lieu of ripening. Two Plants are sufficient to store you amply, which you shall pull up in fair weather (when, by the yellownesse of the colour you shall judge it to be ripe) and lay a drying, afterwards rub out the seeds with your hands upon some cloth, and cleansing it from the husks, give it a second drying, lest it become musty; for being of a spongy substance, as the Red Beets are, it will continue a long time moyst.

Orache. There is another sort of Beets, which is called Oracke, very agreeable to the taste, it is excellent in Pottage, and carryes its own Butter in it self: it is raised as the former is, excepting only that you may plant it neerer, and needs no transplanting, 'tis sufficient that it be weeded, and houed when there is cause.

Succory. There are several kindes of Garden Succories, different in leaf and bigness • , but resembling in taste, and which are to be ordered alike.

Season. Sow it in the Spring upon the borders, & when it has 6 leaves replant it in rich ground about 18 inches distance, paring them at the tops. When they are grown so large as to cover the ground, tye them up, as I instructed you before, where I treated of Rom▪ Lettuce, not to bind them up by handfuls as they grow promiscuously, but the strongest & forwardest at first, letting the other fortifie. I remit you thitherto avo • d repetition. It is in the second Section, Art. Lettuce, where you will also finde the manner of whiting it under earthen Pots.

Blanching. There is yet another fashion of Blanching it. In the great heats, when instead of heading you perceive it would run to seed, hollow the earth at one side of the Plant, and couch it down without violating any of the leaves, and so cover it, leaving out only the tops and extremity of the leaves, and thus it will become white in a little time, and be hindred from running to seed.

Those who are very curious bind the leaves gently before they interre them, to keep out the Grit from entring between them, which is very troublesome to wash out, when you would dresse it.

Remember to couch them all at one side, one upon another, as they grew being planted, beginning with that which is neerest the end of the Bed, and continuing to lay them, the second upon the first, and the third upon the second, till you have finished all the ranges.

I finde likewise two other manners of blanching them for the Wint • r; The first is at the first frosts, That you • ye them after the ordinary way, and then at the end of eight or ten dayes, plucking them up, couch them in the bed, where you raised them from seeds, making a small trench cross the Bed the height of your plant, which will be about eight inches, beginning at one end. In this you shall range your plants side by side, so as they may gently touch, and a little shelving: this done, cover them with small rotten dung of the same bed: Then make another Furrow for a second range, in which order lay your plants as before, continuing this order til you have finish'd, and last of all cover the whole bed four fingers thick, with hot soyl fresh drawn out of the Stable; and in a short time they will be blanched. If you will afterwards cover the Bed with some Mats placed a • lant, like the ridge of a house to preserve them from the rain, they will last a very long time without rotting. When you would have any of them for use, begin at the last which you buried, and, taking them as they come, draw them out of the range, and break off what you finde rotten upon the place, or that which has contracted any blacknesse from the dung, before you put it into your Basket for the Kitchen.

Housing. A second manner of preserving it, is, to interre it, as before, in Furrows of Sand in the Cellar, placing the root upmost, lest the Sand run in between the leaves, and you finde it in the Dish when they serve it. You need not here bestow any Dung upon them, it is sufficient that the Sand cover the Plant four fingers high, and when you take it out for use, before you dresse it, shake it well the Root upmost, that all the Sand may fall out from the leaves. Take them likewise as they happen to lye in the Ranges.

There is a kinde of Succory, which hardens of it self without binding; which is a small sort, but very much prized for its excellence.

Seed. For the Seed, leave of the fairest Plants growing, and particularly such as you perceive would whiten of themselves, and head without tying. Let it well mature, though it a little over ripen: since it is not subject to scatter and fall out as many others are. On the contrary, when being exceedingly dryed, you shall lay it upon the Barn-floor, you shall have much adoe, to fetch out the Seeds from the heads, though you thrash it with a Flail.

Endive. Of Endive or wilde Succory, some of it bears a blew Flower, others a white, it is to be governed like the Garden, but with lesse difficulty; for you need only sowe it in a small Rill, weeding, houing, and thinning it in due season.

Blanching. Housing. To blanch it, cover it only with reasonable warm dung, and drawing it out at the first appearance of Frost, keep it under sand in your Cellar, as you do other Roots: but first, it ought to be almost white of it self: The root is very much esteemed, which has made me dubious whether I should not have placed it amongst them, but I concluded it most properly reserved with the curled Succory in respect of their conformity, as well in growing, as in producing its seeds.

Sorre • l. Of Sorrel we have very many kindes, the Great, the Lazy, &c. for as much as one leaf is sufficient for Pottage, being so prodigiously large, that they have some leaves seven inches broad and fifteen or eighteen long: It is a sort which has been transported out of the Low-Countryes, and I have had of the first.

A second kinde is another large Sorrel resembling Patience.

A third produces no seed, but is propagated from the small sideleaves, which it shoots when it begins to spread in the ground.

A fourth is the Small Sorrel which we have had so long in use.

A fift is the round-leaved Sorrel, large, and small, which also does not seed, but is to be raised of the little strings with which it o'respreads the ground, and by little tendrels which grow about the plant, and which you may take up in tuffts to furnish your beds withall.

A sixt is the Wild sorrel, frequently found upon the up-lands and therefore not worth the paines to plant in gardens.

Lastly, there is a seventh sort, which bears a small traingular leafe called Alleluja, it is very delicate and agreeable by reason of its acidity, like the other sorrel for tast, but excellent in pottage, Farces and Sallades, as being endowed with the same qualities and rellish of the other sorrels.

Soweing. You may sow all those sorts, which produce seed, after the frosts, in narrow rills, four in a bed, but be diligent to weed it, lest it be overgrown; when it is a little strong thin it a little, that it may the better prosper, and if you please, you may furnish other beds with what you take away.

Transplanting But it is the best way if you would transplant it, it, to gather of the strongest, and at the beginning of Autumn or spring make borders a part: They doe well either way, continue long in perfection, even till ten or twelve years. But then it will be fit to remove it, because the ground will be weary of being alwayes burthened with the same plant, and delights in diversity: besides the rootes crowding and pressing one another, cannot finde sufficient substance to nourish and entertain them.

Dressing▪ They must be dug at least thrice a year, which should be at the entry of the hard frosts, you must shake some Melon bed dung upon them: The Soyl of Poultry is excellent and makes it wonderfully flourish.

At this second digging, you shall extirpate what ever you finde grow scatring out of range by the sheading of seed, and geuld them also about, cutting off all the leaves and stalks neer the ground, before you cover them with the dung.

Seed. The seed is easily gatherd from such as bear it, for it runs up at Midd-Summer, and when you see it ripe, cut off the stalkes close to ground, afterwards being dryed, it soon quits the pouches, cleanse it well and preserve it for use.

Patience. Patience must be ordered like Sorrel: The plant is not so delicious to the Palate, however one would have a bed of it, that your Garden may be compleat.

Borrage. The Vertues of Borrage recommends it to your Garden, though it impaire the colour of your Pottage, darkning it a little The flowers of it are a very agreeable service, to garnish the meate, pottages, Sallades, and other dishes; since by reason of their sweetnesse, they may be eaten without any disgust.

Soweing. It is to be sow • e in the spring, like other herbs, and may be left in the ground: their hardy Ro • ts supporting the hardest frosts, sprouting a fresh in the Spring: The Gardiners of Paris pull up the whole plant, and sowe it many times in the year, to have it alwayes tender.

For the ordering of it, it is sufficient that it be gently houed and weeded.

Seed. For the seed, let the fairest plants run, and when they are full ripe on the stalke, gather and save it.

Buglosse. Buglosse is to be govern'd like borrage, and therefore I will spend no more time upon it.

Chervill. Chervill, besides what I told you before, that you should sowe it upon Beds to compose swaller Salades at the end of Winter; It will be good to sowe new from moneth to moneth (though it be but little) that you may still have it fresh and more tender, then that which is old sowne. The borders of your Wall-fruit and hedges may serve for this effect, forasmuch as it cannot prejudice your Trees, being so small, and requiring so little substance for its growth, and the small time of its Sojourne in a place.

Seed. You shall let one end of your bed run to graine, which will amply suffice to furnish you, let it ripen well upon the stalke then pull it up or cut it, and dry it perfectly before you reserve it,

There is another sort of Spanish Chervill which is called Mirrhis Odorata whose leafe much resembles Hemlock: But very agreeable to the tast, having a perfume like the green Anis, and much pleasanter being a little chewed.

At the spring, when it makes a shoot from its old stalke, they cover it with small dung, and then with hot soyl over to choke it, that it may be fit for Salads; It is infinitely to be preferred before Allisanders, or the Sceleri of Italy.

Sowing. You shall sowe it in spring in some place by it self, and till it be come up do nothing to it, besides cleansing it of weeds as they spring up, it being some times a whole year under ground.

Seed. The seed you shall gather in its season, and order it as you do the rest.

Allisanders. Allisanders are to be ordered as I now shewed you in Spanish Chervill, only the seed of it does not ly so long hid, and that it is not to be eaten till it be buryed under the dung, or covered with pots like Succory.

Sceleri. Italian Sceleri shall be treated after the same manner: the shoot or stalke is that which is the most excellent in the plant, because it is so delicate and tender.

Soweing. These three last plants, are not to be sowne every year, but preserve themselves in the ground during Winter without prejudice.

Purslaine. Of Purslaines I finde four sorts, the greene, and White, and the Golden lately brought us from the Ilands of St. Christopher, which is the most delicate of all the rest; and lastly the small wild Purslain▪ which the ground spontaneously produces and is therefore least esteemed.

Soweing. It is to be sowne at spring upon the bed, and all Summer long, to have alwayes that which is tender, bur first you must dig the earth well, and throughly dresse it: sprinkle your seed as thin as you can, which is the more difficult to do, because the grain is so exceeding smal, and when it is sowne, you shall cover it no otherwise, then by clapping the bed with the back of your spade. This done, water it immediately, that you make no holes in the bed, thus it will come up speedily, provided that you ply it with refreshments at the beginning.

Transplanting. To be master of excellent seed you must transplant it, and thus you will produce goodly stalks • to Pickle, and serve to put in your winter Salads, and in Pottage.

Seed. You shall perceive the graine to be ripe, when it lookes very black, and then you shall pull up the plant, and lay it upon a Sheet to wither, and dry in the sun: But at night carry it in the same sheet into the house, and the next day expose it again, continuing so to do till it be all perfectly ripe, then rub it 'twixt your hands, and poure it into another sheet to dry throughly before you box it up. You shall set your plants a drying again for some dayes after, and they will furnish you with more seed which could not be gotten out the first time.

You shall finde that new seed is nothing so good to sowe as that which is two, three, or four years old.

Spinach. Of Spinach there are three sorts: The large which has not the leafe so pointed and prickly as the smaller, and the Pale, which makes up the third.

Conserving of Fruits in their Naturall. Raspis. THere is nothing which doth more lively concern the Senses then in the depth of Winter to behold the Fruits so fair, and so good, yea better, then when you first did gather them, and that then, when the Trees seem to be dead, and have lost all their verdure, and the rigour of the Cold to have so despoyl'd your Garden of all that imbellished it, that it appears rather a Desart then a Paradise of Delices: then it is (I say) that you will taste your fruit with infinite more gust and contentment, then in the Summer it self, when their great abundance, and rarity, rather cloy you then become agreeable. For this reason therefore it is, that we will essay to teach you the most expedite, and certain means how to conserve them all the Winter, even so long, as till the New shall incite you to quit the Old. For it is just with Fruits as it is with Wines: those which we drink first are the more delicate and juicy; and those which we reserve for the latter part of the year are more firm and lasting: both excellent in their Season: But so soon as the New are made, and fit to pierce, we abandon the old, which we before esteemed so agreeable. In like manner it is, so soon as the new Fruits approach to their maturity, we forsake those of the year past; and one dish of Strawberries, or Cherries, (though never so green) or forward Pears, shall be preferred to the best, and fairest Bon-Chrestien which you can produce.

Conservatory. Fabrick. Situation To pursue then our first intention. It will be necessary to choose some place in your house the most commodious to make your Reserva •• ry or store-house, which should have the windows and overtures narrow to prevent the extreamity both of heat and the cold: these you shall allways keep shut, and so secured from the ayr as only to afford you a moderate light, which you shall also banish by closing the wooden shutters when you go out: And indeed were there none at all, and that the door to it were very straight, and low, it would be the better keeping it shut so soon as ever you are entred.

Such a place designed for your store, you shall build shelves about, and (if the room be capable of it) that the middle be to lay fruit in heaps, such as are the most common and destind for the Servants, and if it be not wide enough, it shall suffice to shelve it three parts and leave the fourth for the heaps.

Shelving. Let your shelves be layd upon brackets of wood or Iron very strong because of their charge: two of them side by side, two foot broad: Which you must ledg with a small Lath, to keep the fruit from rowling and falling off: but let-none of these shelves be within a yard of the floor, that you may place the best rare fruit under them, seperateing and distinguishing them according to their kinds: but you may continue the shelves upward to the very Ceeling placing them about nine or ten-inches asunder. And for the more convenien • e you should have a smal light frame of steps by which you ascend and reach to the uppermost shelf, when you would visite your fruit: a ladder being nothing so convenient, wearying the feet, and more subject to fall.

Season of Gathering fruit. The season of Gathering your winter-fruits being come, which you shall discover by many indications, as when they begin to drop off themselves, which commonly happens after the first rains of Autumn, when the Tree being sobb'd and wet, swells the wood, and loosens, the fruit: Or when the first frosts advertise you that it is time to lay them up: or (to be more certain) at the decrease of the Moon in October (thus for the Pears and Apples) begining to gather the softest first, and finishing with the harder, that they may have the more time to perfect their maturity.

There are some fruits that are only to be eaten ripe as the Gros • enil-pear A kinde of hip, a • ound red berrie, Cor •• es is a fruit fashioned like a pear and to be rotted like a Medlar. Cor • nes, Pear. Services, Azerolls, and the like, which you shall leave upon the Tree till you perceive by their falling in great numbers, they admonish you to gather them.

Medlars are to be gathered about St. Lukes, according to the • roverb.

Medlars. Baskets. When you gather your Fruits, you should be provided with strong ozier Baskets, to be born full betwixt two men, and you shall put a little straw at the bottom, lest the weight of the uppermost bruise the undermost against the basket.

Fallen fruit. You shall as you gather your fruits separate the fairest and biggest from the midling and such as are fallen off themselves, or as you have thrown down in gathering the others, putting each sort in a b •• ket apart: I speak not here of the smallest and the crumplings, for I suppose you discharg'd your Trees of them before, so soon as you perceived that they did not thrive, to give the more nourishment to the rest. The worm-eaten Apples should be put also amongst those which are fallen to be spent first.

Housing. As fast as you gather your fruits, you shall carrie them into your storehouse, and range them upon your shelves so as they may not touch one another, putting • little straw all under them, and in like manner distinguishing the fairest and biggest from the lesser upon several shelves and heaping up the worm-e • en and fallen, as I but now directed you.

Bon-Chresten As • ouching the Bon Chrestien Pears, they are more curiously to be gathered then the rest, for the stalkes of such as are very fair and well coloured, red at one side and yellow at the other, should be sealed with Spanish wax to preserve their sap from evaporating: this done, wrap them up in drie pa • ers and put them in a Bushell or a Box well covered, that they may grow t • wny and mature being thus shut up.

You shall Practice the same upon the Double-f • owere Pear, the Cadillace, the Thoul, and others which are graffed upon the Q • ince, and which receive their colour from the Tree: For as for those as are graffed upon the Pear-stock, they commonly continue Green; and therefore without any farther trouble, you need only range them upon the shelves, as you did the rest.

C •• inet. Those that are very curious have a Cupboard which shutts very close, in which they reserve their Bonne Chrestiens: This Cupboard is furnished with shelves, upon every of which are fastned small quarters of wood, which are laid cross like a grate, every square neer as big as the greatest Pear. Upon each of these s • uares they lay a Pear by it self, for fear lest they should touch; and that if any of them should be perished, it do not in • ect its neighbour. This Cupboard they keep very close, pasting pieces of Paper about the Key-holes, to keep out the ayr, and never open it, save when they would take our fruit, and this closing them up does give them a most excellent colour: but before they thus shut them up, • they leave the Pears five or six dayes in the Baskets, wherein they were brought out of the Orchard, that they may have time to sweat.

Ripe fruit. Those Fruits which are to be leaten ripe, should be layed in heaps, and if they do not mellow fast enough to your desire, you shall put them into a Wheat-Sack, and shall jumble them together betwixt two, this Concussion one against the other will exceedingly advance their maturity.

Grapes. Your Muscat grapes of all colours, as the Chasselats, Bicane, and Rochel Grapes, or others more ordinary, are to be preserved several ways, either singly ranging them upon straw o • h • nging them in Sieves up to the Ceeling, covering them over with paper to guard them from the dust, or barrelling them up with Oat-Chaff or in a tub of Ashes, or which is best, hanging them by their ends (not stalks) in your forementioned Cub-board.

To keep them. I pretermit severall o • her curious wayes of keeping Grapes, as when they are in Flower to put the Clusters into a Glasse-Violl, and when it is Ripe cut it from the Vine, and seal up the stalk, but it must so hang as that none of them touch the • ide of the Glasse, and then close the mouth of it with soft wax, to keep out the Ayr, this will preserve the Chister till Christmas.

There are divers other means, which I omit because they are altogether unprofitable, troublesome, and expensive.

and though I have not before taught you how you may store your self with these Muscat-Grapes of all Colours, it is not out of ignorance, for I am abundantly furnished withthem; But because it is a plant which is to be governed like the other Vines, I referr it to my Vignerous, who have from their Youth been accostomed to the ordering of Vines, their experience instructing them in those necessary subjections which a Gardner would never observe, with so many precautions as they are obliged to do, especially in planting and pruning them, which are the onely things I instrust them in, and am well satisfied.

Vermine. I shall tell you upon this occasion, that all sorts of Flies, and Bees, Wasps, &c. Dormise, and Rats, are exceedingly licorish of these grapes, when they are ripe, to prevent which you shall place some clove of Garlick half hid in severall places upon the poles which support them, neer the Clusters, and the very Sent thereof will chase them away.

Aspect. The fullest aspect of the Meridian Sun, and shelter of some Wall, is the onely place that the Muscat and Precoce Grape affects.

Rotten fruit. Mice. Cats. To conclude this Section, I will advise you to visit your Conservatory often, that in case you finde any of the Fruits rotten, you take them away; for they spoil all that they touch: but if you perceive any one that the Mice have begun, stirre it not from the place; for as long as any of that single Fruit remains, they will never attaque another: In the mean time set a Trap to catch them, for to let Cats in, they will disorder your Fruit, and leave their Ordure amongst the heaps, and upon the Shelves.

Pickling cucumbers. CUcumbers are the biggest Garden Fruit which we use to pickle, they are to be chosen very small, (which they call Cornets or Gerkins, because we choose those which resemble little crooked hor • s, and that do not improve) or else somewhat bigger, but very young, before their seeds be hard, which are nothing so pleasant to eat: These are to be pickled pared, or whole; but it is best to pare them before you put them in pickle then afterwards; because of the loss of your Salt and Vinegre upon the Skin, which will become so hard, as scarcely to be eaten: But they are handsomer and whiter, being pared at that instant when you serve them to the Table, then such as you pare before they be pickled: so that you may do which of them you please.

The other small horned Cucumbers are to be pickled without paring, by reason of the delicateness of their skin.

Cathering You must gather very early in a fair morning, and let them lie all the rest of the day in the Sun to mortifie them a little, that they may the better receive in the Salt.

Put the pared, the unpared, and the Ge • kins, each of them in well glazed earthen Pots apart (for those that are unglazed, crumble and moulder away, by reason of the Salt which does penetrate them, and so lose their Pickle) ranging them handsomly, and crowding them as neer as you can to one another, without bruising: then you shall strew a good quantity of Salt upon them, and the Vinegre afterwards, tilf the uppermost of all are well covered; otherwise there will breed a mouldinesse that will spoil all that remain bare. Thus set them up in a temperate place, and touch them not at least in six weeks, that they may be perfectly pickled. Your Storehouse will be the most convenient place to keep them in.

〈◊〉 . Let the Purslain which you would pickle be of tha • which you have transplanted, that it may be the fairer. The true season to gather it is, when it begins to flower, if you would have that which is tender: for if you omit it till it be out of flower, that you may save the Seed, (as it is commonly sold) it will be too hard to eat. Let it also be dried and mortified in the Sun, two or three dayes, and then range it in glazed Pots with Vinegre and Salt as you did the Cucumbers.

C • pers Broom-b • ds. Sampiere. Tarr • gon. Capers, Broom-buds, Sampier, Tarragon and the like, are to be pickled after the same manner as above.

Artichoks. Bottoms of Artichock • are to be pickled in Salt, but after another Method then the former; for they must first be above half-boyl'd, and when they are cold, and well drain'd of their water, which should likewise be dried with a cloth to take out all their hu • idity, range them in Pots, and pour Brine upon them, as strong as it can possibly be made; which is done by putting into it so much Salt, as till it will no longer imbibe, & that the Salt precipitates to the bottom whole and without melting. This we call Marinated water.

Upon this water (which will cover your Artichocks) you must pour Sweet Butter melted, to the eminence of two fingers, that you may thereby exclude the Air; then the Butter being cold, set up the Pot with your Cucumbers, or in some other temperate place, covered and well secur'd from the Cats & the mice, which else will make bold to visit your B • tter.

But I presume that before you put the Artichoks in the Pot, you did prepare them as you would have done to serve them to the Table, that is, taken off all the leaves and the Chocke which is within.

Time. The true season for this is in Autumn, when (practising what I taught you before in the second Treatise in the Chapter of Artichokes) your Plants produce those which are young and tender, for they are these which you should take to pickle, before they come to open and flower, but yet not till their heads are well formed and hard.

When you would eat of them, you must extract their saltnesse by often shifting the water, and boyle them once again before you serve them to the Table.

Asparagus Peas. Champignons. Asparagus, Peas without Cods, Morilles, Champignons, or Mushrums, are also to be pickled in salt, (having first parboyl'd them, & prepared every sort in its kind) af •• r the same manner that you did Artichoks.

V • sit your pots. You shall monethly be sure to visite your Pots, that in case you perceive any of them Mouldy, or to have lost their pickle, you may according repayr it.

Cornelians. I have some years since invented the pickling of Cornelians, and have frequently made them passe for Olives of Veronna, with divers persons who have been deceived, their colour so resembling them, and their tast so little different. To effect this, I cause the fairest and biggest to be gathered when first then would begin to blush, & then letting them lye a while, I Pot or Barrel them up, filling them with brine, just as I do Artichocks, and to render them odoriferous, adding a little branch of green Fenel, & a few Bay-leaves: then closing the vessel well, touch it not for a moneth after. If you finde them too salt, dilute & abate the pickle before you serve them to the Table.

To Preserve fruit with Wine Cider. Hony. ALl sorts of Fruits which may be preserved in Sugar, may also be preserved in Must, in Cyder, or in Hony. And there is no other dfficulty in making choyce of fruits to scald and preserve this way, then in choosing such as you would preserve in Sugar.

In Must. To describe in this place the principall rules which must of necessity be observed in preserving fruit in the Must or new Wine; You shall take▪ three pails full, three pots, or 3 parts of must, according to the quantity of fruit which you intend to preserve: set it in a Kettle or Skillet on the fire, but with care, that if your fire be of wood, the flame being too great do not burn some side of the vessell. Then let your must continue boyling till it be reduced to one third part, that it may be of fitting • onsistence to preserve your fruit in, sufficiently, & keep it from moulding & spoyling.

The fruits being pared or unpared, according to their natures or your curiosity, those which ought to be scalded being done, well drained, and dryed from their water, are to be put and preserved in this Must carefully scummed, and made to • oyl till you perceive that the Syrupe is of a sufficient consistence, which you shall know by dropping some of it on a plate, if it appear in stiff Rubies & run not about, the plate a little inclining.

You cannot take your Must too new, & therefore, as soon as you perceive the grapes very ripe, tread them immediatly, and take of that must as much as will serve, white or re • , according to the fruit you would preserve. Some fruits as the Quince, the Pear, & the Blew grape, &c. require Must of blew grapes, others of white, as Walnuts, the Muscat-grape & the like, whose candor and whitenesse you desire to preserve.

To heighten the tast of those fruits which you ought to preserve in red-Wine, put in a little Cinnamon and Cloves tyed up in a button of Lawn that they may not be dispersed amongst the preservs, lost or consum'd in the Syrupe, and to those which require white wine, a bunch of green Fenel bound up likewise in a cloath.

Ma • malad of Grapes or Raisins▪ Codiniack, or Marmalad of Grapes is made of the fairest, & ripest blew grapes, gathered in the afternoon at the heat of the day, to the end that their moysture may be intirely dryed up: Lay them in some lost of your house, where both the ay • & the Sun have free entercourse, spreading them upon Tables or Hurdles, that, for at the leas • a fortnight, they may there sweat & shrink: In case the weather prove cloudy, or that the season prove cold, you may set them in your O • en temperately warm, after which presse them wel with your hands, cleansing them from all their seeds and stalks, putting the husks and juice to boyl in the kettle, & diligently scumming and cleering it from the seeds: Reduce this liquor also to a third part, diminishing the fire, according as your con • ection thickens, and stirring it often about with your spatule or spoon to prevent its cleaving to the vessel, Gas • be an instrument made like an Oare. and that it may boyl equally. Being thus prepar'd, you shall percolat it through a Sieve or course cloath, bruising the husks with your wooden Ladle, the better to express out the substance, aud besides, you shall wring it forth, or squeez it in a press: when this is done, set it again on the fire, & boyl it once more keeping it continually stirring till you conceive it to be suffici • ntly boiled, then taking it off, pour it into Earthen-pans, to prevent its contracting any ill smack from the kettle, and being half cold, put it into Gally-pots, to keep.

Potting. You shall let your pots stand open five or six daies, and then cover them with paper so fitted as to lye upon the very preserve within the pot, and when visiting your pots, you finde that any of your paper is mouldy, take it away and apply another, this doe as long as you shall see cause, which will be untill such time as all the superfluous humidity be evaporated, for then the mouldinesse will vanish unlesse your confection was not sufficiently boyled, in which case it must be boyled again, and then you may cover them for altogether.

M • stard de Dijon. To make Mustard a la mode de Dijon, you shalf only take of this Codiniack and put to it store of Seneve or Mustard-seed well b • uised in a mortar with water, & finely searced, and when it is exquisitely mixed together, quench therein some live coles, to extract all the bitternesse from the se • d, then either barrel or pot it up, well closed, and reserved for use.