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Fiue hundred pointes of good Husbandrie

as well for the Champion, or open countrie, as also for the woodland, or Seuerall, mixed in euerie Month with Huswiferie, ouer and besides the booke of Huswiferie, corrected, better ordered, and newly augmented to a fourth part more, with diuers other lessons, as a diet for the fermer, of the properties of winds, planets, hops, herbes, bees, and approoued remedies for sheepe and cattle, with many other matters both profitable and not vnpleasant for the Reader. Also a table of husbandrie at the beginning of this booke: and another of huswiferie at the end: for the better and easier finding of any matter conteined in the same. Newly set foorth by Thomas Tusser

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Septembers husbandrie.
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Septembers husbandrie.

Chap. 15.

September blowe soft,
Till fruite be in loft.
Forgotten, month past.
Doe now at the last.

1

At Mihelmas lightly, new fermer comes in,
new husbandrie forceth him, new to begin:
Old fermer, still taking, the time to him giuen,
makes August to last, vntill Mihelmas euen.

2

New fermer may enter (as champions say)
on all that is fallow, at Lent ladie day:
In woodland, old fermer, to that will not yeeld,
for loosing of pasture, and feede of his feeld.

3

Prouide against Mihelmas, bargaine to make,

Ferme take or giue ouer.


for ferme to giue ouer, to keepe or to take:
In dooing of either, let wit beare a stroke,
for buieng or selling, of pig in a poke.

4

Good ferme and wel stored, good housing and drie,

Twelue good properties.


good corne and good dairie, good market and nie:
Good shepheard, good tilman, good Iack and good Gil,
makes husband and huswife, their cofers to fil.

5

Let pasture be stored, and fenced about,

Haue euer a good fence.


and tillage set forward, as needeth without:
Before ye doe open, your purse to begin,
with any thing dooing, for fancie within.

[15]

6

Best cattle most profit.

No storing of pasture, with baggedglie tit,

with ragged, with aged, and euil athit:
Let carren and barren, be shifted awaie,
for best is the best, whatsoeuer ye paie.

7

Strong and light.

Horse, Oxen, plough tumbrel, cart, waggon, & waine,

the lighter and stronger, the greater thy gaine:
The soile and the seede, with the sheafe and the purse,
the lighter in substance, for profite the wurse.

8

Hate borowing.

To borow to daie, and to morow to mis,

for lender and borower, noiance it is:
Then haue of thine owne, without lending vnspilt,
what followeth needfull, here learne if thou wilt.

A digression to husbandlie furniture.

1

Barne furniture.

Barne locked, gofe ladder, short pitchforke and long,

Flaile, strawforke and rake, with a fan that is strong:
Wing, cartnaue and bushel, peck, strike readie hand,
get casting sholue, broome, and a sack with a band.

2

Stable furniture.

A stable wel planked, with key and a lock,

walles stronglie wel lyned, to beare off a knock:
A rack and a manger, good litter and haie,
sweete chaffe, and some prouender euerie daie.

3

A pitchfork, a doongfork, seeue, skep and a bin,
a broome and a paile to put water therein:
A handbarow, wheelebarow, sholue and a spade,
a currie combe, mainecombe, and whip for a Iade.

4

A buttrice and pincers, a hammer and naile,
an aperne and siszers for head and for taile:
Hole bridle and saddle, whit lether and nall,
with collers and harneis, for thiller and all.

5

A panel and wantey, packsaddle and ped,
a line to fetch litter, and halters for hed:

16

With crotchis and pinnes, to hang trinkets theron,
and stable fast chained, that nothing be gon.

6

Strong exeltred cart, that is clouted and shod,

Cart furniture.


cart ladder and wimble, with percer and pod:
Wheele ladder for haruest, light pitchfork and tough,
shaue, whiplash wel knotted, and cartrope ynough.

7

Ten sacks, whereof euerie one holdeth a coome,

A Coeme is halfe a quarter.


a pulling hooke handsome, for bushes and broome:
Light tumbrel, and doong crone, for easing sir wag,
sholue, pickar, and mattock, with bottle and bag.

8

A grinstone, a whetstone, a hatchet and bil,

Husbandry tooles.


with hamer and english naile, sorted with skil:
A frower of iron, for cleauing of lath,
with roule for a sawpit, good husbandrie hath.

9

A short saw, and long saw, to cut a too logs,
an ax and a nads, to make troffe for thy hogs:
A Douercourt beetle, and wedges with steele,
strong leuer to raise vp, the block fro the wheele.

10

Two ploughs & a plough chein, ij. culters, iij. shares

Plough furniture.


with ground cloutes, & side clouts, for soile yt so tares:
With ox bowes and oxyokes, and other things mo,
for oxteeme and horseteeme, in plough for to go.

11

A plough beetle, ploughstaff, to further the plough,
great clod to a sunder that breaketh so rough:
A sled for a plough, and another for blocks,
for chimney in winter, to burne vp their docks.

12

Sedge collers for ploughhorse, for lightnes of neck,
good seede and good sower, and also seede peck:
Strong oxen and horses, wel shod and wel clad,
wel meated and vsed, for making thee sad.

13

A barlie rake toothed, with yron and steele,
like paier of harrowes, and roler doth weele:

[16]

A sling for a moether, a bowe for a boy,
a whip for a carter, is hoigh de la roy.

14

Haruest tooles.

A brush sithe, and grasse sithe, with rifle to stand,

a cradle for barlie, with rubstone and sand:
Sharpe sikle and weeding hooke, haie fork and rake,
a meake for the pease, and to swinge vp the brake.

15

Short rakes for to gather vp barlie to binde,
and greater to rake vp, such leauings behinde:
A rake for to hale vp, the fitchis that lie,
a pike for to pike them vp, handsom to drie.

16

A skuttle or skreine, to rid soile fro the corne,
and sharing sheares readie, for sheepe to be shorne:
A fork and a hooke, to be tampring in claie,
a lath hammer, trowel, a hod, or a traie.

17

Strong yoke for a hog, with a twicher and rings,
with tar in a Tarpot, for dangerous things:
A sheepe marke, a tar kettle, little or mitch,
two pottles of tar, to a pottle of pitch.

18

Longladder to hang al along by the wal,
to reach for a neede, to the top of thy hal:
Beame, scales, with the weights, that be sealed & true,
sharp moulspare with barbs, yt the mowles do so rue.

19

Sharpe cutting spade, for the deuiding of mow,
with skuppat and skauel, that marsh men alow:
A sickle to cut with, a didall and crome,
for draining of ditches, that noies thee at home.

20

A clauestock, and rabetstock, carpenters craue,
and seasoned timber, for pinwood to haue:
A Iack for to saw vpon, fewell for fier,
for sparing of firewood, and sticks fro the mier.

21

Soles, fetters, & shackles, with horselock and pad,
a cow house for winter, so meete to be had:

17

A stie for a bore, and a hogscote for hog,
a roost for thy hennes, and a couch for thy dog.
Here endeth husbandlie furniture.

9

Thresh seed, and to fanning, September doth crie,

Sowing of rie.


get plough to the field, and be sowing of rie:
To harrow the rydgis, er euer ye strike,
is one peece of husbandrie, Suffolk doth like.

10

Sowe tunely thy whitewheat, sowe rie in the dust,
let seede haue his longing, let soile haue hir lust:
Let rie be partaker of Mihelmas spring,
to beare out the hardnes that winter doth bring.

11

Some mixeth to miller, the rie with the wheat,
Temmes lofe, on his table, to haue for to eate:

Myslen.


But sowe it not mixed, to growe so on land,
least rie tarie wheat, till it shed as it stand.

12

If soile doe desire, to haue rie with the wheat,
by growing togither, for safetie more great:
Let white wheat be ton, be it deere, be it cheape,
the sooner to ripe, for the sickle to reape.

13

Though beanes be in sowing, but scattered in,

Sowing.


yet wheat, rie, and peason, I loue not too thin:
Sowe barlie and dredge, with a plentifull hand,
least weede, steed of seede, ouer groweth thy land.

14

No sooner a sowing, but out by and by,
with mother or boy, that Alarum can cry:
{Now} let them be armed, with sling or with bowe,

Keeping of crowes


to skare away piggen, the rooke and the crowe.

15

Seede sowen, draw a forrough, the water to draine,

water furrough.


and dike vp such ends, as in harmes doe remaine:
[illeg.] driuing of cattell, or rouing that waie,
which being preuented, ye hinder their praie.

[17]

16

Amend marsh walles.

Saint Mihel doth bid thee, amend the marsh wal,

the brecke and the crab hole, the foreland and al:
One noble in season, bestowed theron,
may saue thee a hundred, er winter be gon.

17

Gelding of rams.

Now geld with the gelder, the ram and the bul,

sew ponds amend dammes, and sel webster thy wul:
Out fruit go and gather, but not in the deaw,
with crab and the wal nut, for feare of a shreaw.

18

Gathering of fruit.

The Moone in the wane, gather fruit for to last,

but winter fruit gather, when Mihel is past:
Though michers that loue not to buy nor to craue,
make some gather sooner, else few for to haue.

19

Too early gathering is not best

Fruit gathred too timely, wil taste of the wood,

wil shrink and be bitter, and seldome prooue good:
So fruit that is shaken, or beat off a tree,
with brusing in falling, soone faultie wil bee.

20

Driuing of hiues.

Now burne vp the bees, that ye mind for to driue,

at Midsomer driue them, and saue them aliue:
Place hiue in good ayer, set southly and warme,
and take in due season, wax, honie, and swarme.

21

Preseruing of bees.

Set hiue on a plank, (not too low by the ground)

where herbe with the flowers, may compas it round
And boordes to defend it, from north and north east,
from showers and rubbish, from vermin and beast.

22

Stie vp the bore.

At Mihelmas safely, go stie vp thy Bore,

least straying abrode, ye doo see him no more:
The sooner the better for Halontide nie,
and better he brawneth, if hard he doo lie.

23

Shift bore (for il aire) as best ye do thinke,
and twise a day giue him, fresh vittle and drinke:
And diligent Cislye, my dayrie good wench,
make cleanly his cabben, for measling and stench.

18

24

Now pluck vp thy hempe, and go beat out the seed,

Gathering of winter hempe.


and afterward water it, as ye see need:
But not in the riuer, where cattle should drinke,
for poisoning them, and the people with stinke.

25

Hempe huswifely vsed, lookes cleerely and bright,

Whitest hempe best sold.


and selleth it selfe, by the colour so whight:
Some vseth to water it, some do it not,
be skilful in doing, for feare it do rot.

26

Wife into thy garden, and set me a plot,

Setting of strawberies & roses, &c.


with strawbery rootes of the best to be got:
Such growing abroade, among thornes in the wood,
wel chosen and picked, prooue excellent good.

27

The Barbery, Respis and Goosebery too,

Gooseberies, and Respis.


looke now to be planted as other things doo:
The Goosebery, Respis, and Roses, al three,
with Strawberies vnder them, trimly agree.

28

To gather some mast, it shal stand thee vpon

Gathering of mast.


with seruant and children, er mast be al gon:
Some left among bushes, shal pleasure thy swine,
for feare of mischiefe, keepe acorns fro kine.

29

For rooting of pasture, ring hog ye had neede,

Rooting of hogs.


which being wel ringled, the better do feede:
Though yong with their elders, wil lightly keepe best,
yet spare not to ringle, both great and the rest.

30

Yoke seldom thy swine, while the shacktime doth last,

yoking of swine.


for diuers misfortunes, that happen too fast:
Or if ye do fancie, whole eare of the hog,
giue eie to il neighbour, and eare to his dog.

31

Keepe hog I aduise thee, from medow and corne,

Hunting of hogs.


for out aloude crying, that ere he was borne:
Such lawles, so haunting, both often and long,
if dog set him chaunting, he doth thee no wrong.

[18]

32

Where loue among neighbors, do beare any stroke,
whiles shacktime endureth, men vse not to yoke:

Ringling of hogs.

Yet surely ringling is needeful and good,

til frost do enuite them, to brakes in the wood.

33

Carriage of brakes.

Get home with thy brakes, er an sommer be gon,

for teddered cattle, to sit there vpon:
To couer thy houel, to brewe and to bake,
to lie in the bottome, where houel ye make.

34

Sawe out thy timber.

Now sawe out thy timber, for boord and for pale,

to haue it vnshaken, and ready to sale:
Bestowe it and stick it, and lay it aright,
to find it in March, to be ready in plight.

35

Slabs of timber.

Saue slab of thy timber, for stable and stie,

for horse and for hog, the more clenly to lie:
Saue sawe dust, and brick dust and ashes so fine,
for alley to walke in, with neighbour of thine.

36

Hedge breakers.

Keepe safely and warely, thine vttermost fence,

with ope gap and breake hedge, do seldome dispence:
Such runabout prowlers, by night and by day,
see punished iustly, for prowling away.

37

Learne to know Hewe prowler.

At noone if it bloweth, at night if it shine,

out trudgeth Hew make shift, with hooke & with line:
Whiles Gillet his blouse, is a milking thy cow,
sir Hew, is a rigging, thy gate or the plow.

38

Black or red dogs.

Such walke with a black, or a red little cur,

that open wil quickly, if any thing stur:
Then squatteth the master, or trudgeth away,
and after dog runneth, as fast as he may.

39

Some prowleth for fewel, and some away rig,
fat goose and the capon, duck, hen and the pig:
Some prowleth for acornes, to fat vp their swine,
for corne and for apples, and al that is thine.
Thus endeth Septembers husbandrie.