GREAT AGRICULTURAL WRITERS 131 



take the sprig you intend to graft and pare away about three 

 inches in length of the rind and wood near unto the very pith, 

 and cut also the stock on which you intend to graft the same 

 after the same manner that they may evenly join each other, 

 and so bind them and cover them with clay or wax.' In- 

 oculation was also practised, ' when the sap is at the fullest in 

 the summer, the buds you intend to inoculate being not too 

 young but sufficiently grown.' For transplanting the middle 

 of October is recommended, and the wise advice added, ' plant 

 not too deep,' and in clay plant as near the surface as possible, 

 for the roots will seek their way downward but rarely upward ; 

 and in transplanting * you may prune the branches as well as 

 the roots of apples and pears, but not of plums.' The best 

 distance apart in an orchard for apples and pears was con- 

 sidered to be from 20 to 30 feet, the further apart the more they 

 benefit from the sun and air, a piece of advice which many 

 a subsequent planter has neglected. For cherries and plums 

 15 to 20 feet was thought right. Worlidge's directions for 

 pruning are minute and careful, and should be well hammered 

 into many slovenly farmers to-day. 



Cider-making was performed much as it is in old-fashioned 

 farms to-day, by mashing the apples in a trough by means of 

 a millstone set edgeways, and then pressing the juice out ^ 

 through hair mats, the juice, says Hartlib, ' having been let 

 stand a day or two and the black scum that ariseth in that 

 time taken off they tunne it, and in the barrels it continueth to 

 work some days longer, Just as beer useth to do.^ Another 

 method was to put the fruit in a clean vessel or trough, and 

 bruise or crush it with beetles, then put the crushed fruit in i 

 a bag of haircloth and press it.^ After the cider was in the ! 

 barrels there was placed in them a linen bag containing cloves, 

 itiace, cinnamon, ginger, and lemon peel which was said to 

 make the cider taste as pleasantly as Rhenish wine. 



* Annotation upon the Legacie of Husbandry, 1651, p. 105. 

 ' Markham, i. 174 (ed. 1635). 



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