Enquiries Concerning Agriculture

The seed at first coming out is very white, but within a day it becomes greenish, then red, at last by little and little gray, which colour it retains always, the most coloured of an obscure gray, being the best; those grains, which never quit their whiteness, having no fecundity in them. Each female emits ordinarily some 300 grains, more or less, some of them not being able to render them all, and dying with them in their belly. One ounce of feed will require an hundred pair of Cases, of as many Males as Females. Care must be taken, that no Rats, Mice, Ants, or other Vermin, nor any Hens, or Birds, come near the Seed, they being very greedy to eat them. This is the substance of what is contained in this French Author, published at Paris on purpose to promote the Making of Silk there, as well as it is practised already in other parts of that Kingdom: which is represented here, to the end, that from this occasion the design, which the English Nation once did entertain of the increasing of Mulberry-trees, and the Breeding of Silk-worms, for the making of Silk within themselves, may be renewed, and that encouragement, given by King James of Glorious memory for that purpose (witnesse that Letter which he directed to the Lords Lieutenants of the several shires of England) and seconded by his Most Excellent Majesty, that now is, be made use of, for the honour of England and Virginia, and the increase of wealth to the people thereof: especially since there is cause of hope, that a double Silk-harvest may be made in one Summer in Virginia, without hindring in the least the Tobacco-Trade of that Countrey. Enquiries concerning Agriculture. Whereas the Royal Society, in prosecuting the Improvements of Natural knowledge, have it in design, to collect Histories of Nature and Arts, and for that purpose have already, according to the several Inclinations and Studies of their Members, divided themselves into divers Committees, to execute the said design: Those Gentlemen, which do constitute the Committee for considering of Agriculture, and the History and Improvement thereof, have begun their work with drawing up certain Heads Heads of Enquiries, to be distributed to persons Experienced in Husbandry all over England, Scotland, and Ireland, for the procuring a faithful and solid information of the knowledge and practice already obtained and used in these Kingdoms; whereby, besides the aid which by this means will be given to the general End of collecting the aforementioned History, every place will be advantaged by the helps, that are found in any, and occasion ministred to consider, what improvements may be further made in this whole matter. Now to the End, that those Enquiries may be the more universally known, and those who are skilful in Husbandry, publickly invited to impart their knowledge herein, for the common benefit of their Countrey, it hath been thought fit to publish the effect of them in Print, and withall to desire, that what such persons shall think good from their own Knowledge and Experience to communicate hereupon, they would be pleased to send it to the Printers of the Royal Society, to be delivered to either of the Secretaries of the same. The Enquiries follow. 1. For Arable. 1. The several kinds of the soyls of England, being supposed to be, either Sandy, Gravelly, Stony, Clayie, Chalky, Light-mould, Heathy, Marish, Boggy, Fenny, or Cold weeping Ground; information is desired, what kind of soyls your Country doth most abound with, and how each of them is prepared, when employed for Arable? 2. What peculiar preparations are made use of to these Soyls for each kind of Grain; with what kind of Manure they are prepared, when, how, & in what quantity the Manure is laid on? 3. At what seasons and how often they are ploughed; what kind of Ploughs are used for several sorts of Ground? 4. How long the several Grounds are let ly fallow? 5. How, and for what productions, Heathy Grounds may be improved? And who they are (if there be any in your Country) that have reduced Heaths into profitable Lands? 6. What ground Marle hath over head? How deep generally it lieth from the surface? What is the depth of the Marle itself? What the colour of it? Upon what grounds it is used? What time of the year it is to be laid on? How many loads to an Acre? What Grains Marled Land will bear, and how many years together? How such Marled Land is to be used afterwards, &c? 7. The kinds of Grain or Seed, usual in England, being supposed to be either Wheat, Miscelane, Rye, Barley, Oats, Peate, Beans, Fitches, Buck-wheat, Hemp, Flax, Rape; We desire to know what sorts of Grains are sown in your Country, and how each of these is prepared for Sowing? Whether by steeping, and in what kind of Liquor? Or by mixing it, and with what? 8. There being many sorts of Wheat, as the White or Red Lammas, the bearded Kentish Wheat, the gray Wheat, the red or gray Pollard, the Ducks-bill Wheat, the red-eared, bearded Wheat, &c. And so of Oats, as the common Black, Blue, Naked, Bearded in North-wales: and the like of Barley, Peate, Beans, &c. The Enquiry is, which of these grow in your Country, and in what Soyl; and which of them thrive best there; and whether each of them require a peculiar Til-lage; and how they differ in goodness? 9. What are the chief particulars observable in the choice of Seed corn, and all kinds of Grain; and what kinds of Grain are most proper to succeed one another? 10. What Quantity of each kind is sown upon the Statute-Acre? And in what season of the Moon and year 'tis sowed? 11. With what Instruments they do Harrow, Clod and Rowl, and at what seasons? 12. How much an Acre of good Corn, well ordered, generally useth to yield, in very good, in less good, and in the worst years? 13. Some of the common Accidents and Diseases betalling Corn in the growth of it, being Meldew, Blasting, Smut; what are conceived to be the Causes thereof, & what the Remedies? 14. There being other Annoyances, the growing Corn is exposed to, as Weeds, Worms, Flies, Birds, Mice, Moles, &c., how they are remedied? 15. Upon what occasions they use to cut the young Corn in the Blade, or to feed it; and what are the benefits thereof? 16. What are the seasons and waies of Reaping and Ordering each sort of Grain, before it be carried off the Ground? 17. What 17. What are the several waies of preserving Grain in the Straw, within and without doors, from all kind of Annoyance, as Mice, Heating, Rain, &c? 18. What are the waies of separating the several sorts of Grain from the Straw, and of dressing them? 19. What are the waies of preserving any stores of separated Grain, from the Annoyances they are obnoxious to? 2. For Meadows. 1. How the above-mentioned sorts of Soyl are prepared, when they are used for Pasture or Meadow? 2. The common Annoyances of these Pasture or Meadow Grounds being supposed to be, either Weeds, Moss, Sour-gras, Heath, Fern, Bushes, Bryars, Brambles, Broom, Rushes, Sedges, Gorse or Furzes; what are the Remedies thereot? 3. What are the best waies of Drayning Marshes, Boggs, Fens, &c? 4. What are the several kinds of Grass, and which are counted the best? 5. What are the chief circumstances observable in the Cutting of Grass; and what in the making and preserving of Hay? 6. What kind of Grass is fittest to be preserved for winter-feeding? And what Grass is best for Sheep, for Cows, Oxen, Horses, Goats, &c. Advertisement. The Reader is hereby advertised, that by reason of the present Contagion in London, which may unhappily cause an interruption as well of Correspondencies, as of Publick Meetings, the printing of these Philosophical Transactions may possibly for a while be intermitted; though endeavors shall be used to continue them, if it may be. LONDON, Printed with Licence, By John Martyn, and James Allestry, Printers to the Royal-Society, at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-Yard. 1665.