44 AGRICULTURAL WRUFERS 



trees and plants, and were they are broken or bruised with cattell, it is doubtfull to 

 grow after. It shall be good also to set, plante, or graffe trees all of like nature and 

 strength together that the great and high trees may not overcome the low and weak. 



Here is his recipe for making an oak or other tree to be as green in 

 winter as in summer (page 45) : 



Ye shall not take the graff of an oake tree or other tree and graffe it upon the holly 

 tree ; the best and most surest wa}' is to graffe one through the other. Take also 

 your rose buds in the springtime and then graffe them upon the holly, and they shall 

 be green all the year. 



On page 47, in referring to orchards, he says : 



Grasse is thought deedfu'.l for moysture, so you let it not touch the roots of your fruit 

 trees; for it will breed mosse, and the boall of your tree near the earth would have the 

 comfott of the sun and aire. 



The last chapter is on " hoppes," and he finishes up on the 

 seventieth page by 



Wishing long life and prosperous health 

 To all furtherers of this commonweath. 



The next work written by Mascall is dated 1581, and is dedicated to 

 " Mistresse Catharine Woodforde, wife of Maister James Woodforde, 

 Esquire, chief clerke of the kitching to the Queenes Majestic," and he 

 goes on to state that she had " a desired mind how to use and govern 

 poulterie to profit for maintenance of her housekeeping," and this and 

 having known her at " Brestall " (Bristol), he dedicates the volume to 

 her. 



It is entitled "The Husbandrye, Ordring, and Governmenie of 

 Poultrie," and appears to be the first book written on that subject. It 

 contains eighty-live chapters, comprised within 154 pages and much of 

 the information given would seem to have been largely drawn from the 

 ancients ; but it would be unfair not to give him the credit of being 

 painstaking, even if a good deal of his writing is not based upon actual 

 experience in Sussex. He treats very fully upon fowls, turkeys, geese, 

 peacocks, swans, pigeons, doves, quails, and many other wild birds. 

 He shows how " to make white burdes come of anye egges " and " to 

 make hennes of the colour of your egges ye set her." To cause hens to 

 lay eggs all the winter, he says " take the cropper of nettles when ready 

 to seed, dry them and mix them with bran and hempseed, and give it to 

 them in the morning." 



He adds that, although a good deal of instruction is taken from the 

 old writers Columella and Stephanus, there is added many practices 

 unknown to " all good householders." It is disappointing not to find 

 any description of the various types of fowls cultivated in his day, for as 

 he lived near a district now celebrated for poultry rearing, it would have 

 been interesting had he given some information regarding the Sussex 

 variety of the Dorking. 



