d dibbled in, will produce twelve times as
much as when ploughed; but he admits the 'intricacy and trouble' of
this method.[307] As to the question of mowing or reaping corn, he is
of opinion that though 'it is a custom in many countries of this
kingdom not to sheare the wheat but to mow it, in my conceit it is not
so good, for it both maketh the wheate foule and full of weede'.
Barley, however, should be mown close to the ground, though many reap
it; oats too were to be mown. His directions for planting an
orchard[308] are interesting, both as showing the kinds of fruit then
grown, the number of different sorts planted together, and the growth
of the olive in England.[309] The orchard, he says, should be a
square, divided into four quarters by alleys, and in the first quarter
should be apples of all sorts, in the second pears and wardens of all
sorts, in the third quinces and chestnuts, in the fourth medlars and
services. A wall is the best fence, and on the north wall, 'against
which the sunne reflects, you shall plant the abricot, verdochio,
peache, and damaske plumbe; against the east side the white muskadine
grape, the pescod plumbe, and the Emperiale plumbe; against the west,
the grafted cherries and the olive tree; and against the south side
the almond and the figge tree.' As if this extraordinary mixture were
not enough, 'round about the skirts of the alleys' were to be planted
plums, damsons, cherries, filberts and nuts of all sorts, and the
'horse clog' and 'bulleye', the two latter being inferior wild plums.
Plums were to be 5 feet apart, apples and other large fruit 12 feet.

Young trees should be watered morning and evening in dry summers, and
old ones should have the earth dug away from the upper part of the
roots from November to March, then the earth, mixed with dung or soap
ashes, replaced. Moss was carefully to be scraped off the trees with
the back of an old knife, and, to prevent it, the trees manured with
swine's dung. Minute distinctions are given as to pruning and washing
the trees with strong brine of water and salt, either with a garden
pump placed in a tub or with 'squirtes which have many hoales', the
forerunner of modern spraying.

Cider was then mostly made in the west, as in Devonshire and Cornwall,
and perry in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire; but he leaves out
Herefordshire, where it was certainly made at this time.[310]

A curious help to fattening beasts, says Markham, is a lean ho