FARMERS' REGISTER— PRESERVING FRUIT, &c. 



409 



' g'er and thyrste, will teaclie him to leave that sul- 

 ' len tricke.' 



Next comes the management of Cows, with (he va- 

 rious ways of miikino; Cheese. — 'Cheese is also made 

 ' of Ihemilke of cattell, the milke being: poured into 

 ' a vessell of earth, putting; into it a little rennett, 

 ' the quantitie of a walnutte, in a great vessell of 

 ' milke, wherby it turneth into curd. Varro dooth 

 ' better like the rennett of the lcvret,or the kydde, 

 ' then the lambes, howbeit we commonly use the 

 ' calues rennet: others use sundry other meanes 

 ' only with heate, warming it in linne vessells, and 

 ' after dipping these vessels in cold water, v.hich is 

 ' the sweetest and cleanliest manj^r : others put in 

 ' the seede of wylde saffron, and being so turned, 

 'the whay dooth greatly purge fleanie; others 

 * again u.se the milke of the figge tree, and then 

 'dooth the whay purge both choler andfleame; 

 ' .some turne it with oxymell,or syrope, of uineger, 

 ' which is of all other wayes the holsom.est; some 

 ' besides, use the little skinne of birdes guysardes, 

 ' and others the flowres of wylde thystels or harti- 

 ' chockes.' The above may perhaps serve as a hint 

 to some of our modern dairy women, and teach 

 them, if not a substitute for rennet, at least a less 

 bountiful ap|)lication of it to their cheeses. Speak- 

 ing of the different sorts, he says, 'In our dayes, 

 ' the best cheeses are counted the Parmasines, 

 ' made about the River of Po, esteemed for theyr 

 ' greatnesse and daynetinesse, of which you shall 

 ' haue brought into other countries that way aboue 

 ' three score pounde.' Next are commended the 

 Holland cheese, the cheese of Normandy, and the 

 English cheese. ' In England the best cheese is 

 ' the Cheshyre, and the Shropshyre, then the Ban- 

 ' bur)' cheese, next the Sulfolke, and the Essex 

 ' cheese, and the very worste the Kentishe cheese. 

 ' The places where the best cheese is made, appear- 

 ' eth by this olde Englishe distichon, better sensed, 

 ' then footed. 



' Sanhury, Langlony, Suffolke good cheese, Es- 

 sex go thou by, Shropshire 



Cum Cheshyre, Hertford may well with the best 

 peere.' 



' Of the discommoditie of Essex cheese, our 

 ' Englishe Martial, John Heywood, thus meeryly 

 ' wryteth : 



* / never saw Banhury cheese ihycke yenough, 

 But I haue sene Essex cheese quicke yenough.' 



Next follows a dissertation on Pigs. ' Euery 

 pigge,' he says, ' doth knowe his owne pappe that 

 ' he was borne to ; and sucketh onely that, and 

 ' none other ; yf you take away the pigge, the 

 ' pappe dryeth, as both Plinie and experience 

 ' sheweth. They were v/oont to be bought and 

 ' bargained for in this sorte. Doo you warrant 

 ' that these swyne are sound, that I shall well en- 

 'joy them, that you wyll answere the faultes, and 

 ' that they be of a healthy breede.^' 



From Pigs we get to Dogs and Cats, and then 

 enter upon the Fourth and last Book, ' on Poultry 

 Foule, Fishe and Bees.' — Much useful informa- 

 tion is here developed, particularly with regard to 

 the first article, and on the management of Pigeons. 

 ' They haue many aduersaries, crowes, dawes and 

 'owles, which all destroy the pigions, specially 

 ' when they breed. I founde of late in myneowne 

 ' dovehouse, an owle sitting solemnly in the nest 

 ' upon her egges, in the middest of all the pigions, 



Vol. 1—52 



' and hard by the house in an olde, hollowe tree, I 

 ' found peeces of young pigions, that the owles had 

 ' brought to feede iheyr young with; and though 

 ' the owle seeme to be greater than the pigion, by 

 ' reason of the thicknesse of her feathers, yet wyll 

 ' they creepe in at as little a place as the jjigion wyll, 

 'so small and little is theyr bodyes, though they 

 ' be bombased with feathers.' 



I have thus introtluced you and your readers to 

 my old friend Barnaby ; j)erhaps they are already 

 tired of his company, and therefore he shall ?ay 

 very little more tor himself; and all that I shall 

 say tor him shall be condensed as much as possible. 

 Were I to dra^v a parallel between this work and 

 Fitzherbert's, I should say that Fitzherbert's, 

 though the earliest of the two by more than 40 

 years, and considerably the least volume, is the 

 best practical treatise. It is, in fact, a plain state- 

 ment of the writer's ex[)erience. Googe's, on the 

 contrary, is only a translation, and deals in many 

 articles not interesting to an English farmer, such 

 as vineyards, citrons, jximegranates, and the like. 

 A superstitious veneration for the writers of anti- 

 quity likewise pervades the book, and constant re- 

 ference is made to authorities which a modern 

 farmer would but smile at, so great is the preva- 

 lence of incredulity. For instance, ' the colicke 

 ' or pain in the belly (in oxen,) is put awav in the 

 'beholding of geese in the water, specially duckes; 

 ' for the sight of the ducke, as Vegctius and Colu- 

 ' mella say, is* a present remedy to this beast.' 

 ' Flureiitinus is of that fancie,that he woulde your 

 ' number of sheep should rather be odd than even 

 ' think mg that more fortunate for the healthinesse 

 ' and long continuance of the cattell.' He seems 

 indeed, rather inclined to question the authority in 

 this instance, for he goes on to say,' but these are 

 superstitious toyes, as are a great 'number of others 

 imagined by the foithlesse.' — Not so, however, the 

 following nostrum. ' Hieronimus Tragus teach- 

 ' eth for a horse, If he be sicke, and suddenly fall 

 ' downe of a disease that you know not, put under 

 'his tongue a peece of a feme roote, whereupon 

 ' you shall see him immediately voyde, upward and 

 ' downward, whatsoever is in his body, and pre-^ 

 ' sently amende : This he sayth (and truely J be- 

 ' leeue him) that he proued' with a horse of his 

 owne.' The farmers of the present day (however 

 old fashioned,) would stare to be told, that tares 

 must not be sown ' before the moone be 24 dayes 

 ' olde, otherwyse the snayle wyll devoure it. His 

 ' tyme of sowing is, as Plinie wryteth, at the setting 

 ' of the starre called the Berward,' &c. &c. 



These, and a number of other similar instances 

 will prove to the reader of the present day, that he 

 must not place implicit confidence in every thing 

 he meets with in the book. There is a great deal 

 of good in our author, but he requires sifting. 



I remain, sir, your most obedient servant, 



S. TAYLOR, Jun. 



Ditchingham, July Y7th, 1817. 



GATHERING AAD PRESERVING FRUIT. 



Fiom the American Orchardist. 



Various theories have been offered for preserv- 

 ing apples in a sound state for winter use, or for 

 distant voyages. Some have proposed gathering 

 the fruit before it is ripe, and drymg it on floors 

 before it is put up : this has been tried ; apples lose 

 their sprightly flavor, and keep no better than by 



