The choise of Rootes. Now, before I procéede any further, I thinke it not amisse to speake some thing touching the choise, gathering and trimming of Hoppe-rootes: wherefore you shall vnderstand that about the latter end of March is the best gathering of Hoppe-rootes, which so neare as you can you shall select out of some garden of good reputation, which is both carefully kept, and by a man of good knowledge, for there euery thing being preserued in his best perfection, the rootes will be the greatest and most apt to take: and in the choise of your rootes you shall euer chuse those which are the greatest, as namely, such as are at the least thrée or foure inches about, & ten inches long, let euery roote containe about thrée ioynts, and no more, and in any case let them be the cyons of the last yéeres growth: if they be perfectly good they haue a great gréene stalke with redde streakes, and a hard, broad, long, gréene, bell; if they be otherwise, as namely, wilde-Hoppes, then they are small and slender, like thriddes, their colour is all redde, euen when it is at least thrée yards high, whereas the best Hoppe carieth his reddish colour not thrée foote from the earth. Now hauing gotten such rootes as are good and fit for your purpose, if the season of the weather, or other necessitie hinder you from presently setting them, you shall then either lay them in some puddle, neare to your garden, or else bury them in the ground, vntill fit time for their planting: and of the two it is better to bury them then lay them in puddle, because if you so let them lye aboue xxiiij. houres, the rootes will be spoyled.
Now after you haue in manner aforeshewed, planted your garden with rootes, it shall not be amisse, if the place be apt to such annoyance, to pricke vpon the site of euery hill a few sharpe Thornes to defend them from the scratching of poultry, or such like, which euer are busie to doe mischeife: yet of all house-fowle Géese be the worst, but if your fence be as it ought, high, strong, and close, it will both preuent their harme and this labour.
[Of Poales.] Next vnto this worke is the placing of Poales, of which we will first speake of the choise thereof, wherein if I discent from the opinion of other men, yet imagine I set downe no Oracle, but referre you to the experience or the practise, and so make your owne discreation the arbiter betwéene our discentions. It is the opinion of some, that Alder-poales are most proper and fit for the Hoppe-garden, both that the Hoppe taketh, as they say, a certaine naturall loue to that woode, as also that the roughnesse of the rinde is a stay & benefit to the growth of the Hoppe: to all which I doe not disagrée, but that there should be found Alder-poales of that length, as namely, xvj. or xviij. foote long, nine, or ten, inches in compasse, and with all rush-growne, straight, and fit for this vse, séemeth to mée as much as a miracle, because in my life I haue not beheld the like, neither doe I thinke our kingdome can afford it, vnlesse in some such especiall place where they are purposely kept and maintained, more to shew the art of their maintenance, then the excellency of their natures: in this one benefit, and doutlesse where they are so preserued, the cost of their preseruation amounteth to more than the goodnesse of their extraordinary quallitie, which mine author defends to the contrary, giuing them a larger prerogatiue, in that they are cheaper to the purse, more profitable to the plant, and lesse consumption to the common-wealth: but I greatly doubt in the approbation, and therefore mine aduise is not to rely onely vpon the Alder, and for his preheminence imagine all other poales insufficient: but be assured that either, the Oake-poale, the Ashe, the Béeche, the Aspe, or Maple, are euery way as good, as profitable, and by many degrées much longer lasting.
Now, if it be so that you happen to liue in the champian Country, as for the most part Northampton shire, Oxford-shire, some parts of Leycester and Rutland are, or in the wet and low Countries, as Holland, and Kesten in Lincolne-shire, or the Ile of Elye in Cambridge-shire, all which places are very barraine of woode, and yet excellent soyles to beare Hoppes, rather then to loose the commoditie of the Hoppe-garden I wish you to plant great store of Willowes, which will afforde you poales as sufficient as any of the other whatsoeuer, onely they are not so long lasting, and yet with carefull and dry keeping, I haue séene them last full out seauen yéeres, a time reasonably sufficient for any young woode, for such a vse. The proportion of the Poale. Thus you sée the curiositie is not very great of what woode so euer your poale be, so it be of young and cleane growth, rush-growne, (that is to say, biggest at the neather end) eightéene foote in length, and ten inches in compasse. Of cutting and erecting Poales. These poales you shall cut and prepare betwixt the feast of Al-Saints, and Christmas, and so pile them vp in some dry place, where they may take no wet, vntill it be midde-Aprill, at which time (your Hoppes being shot out of the ground at least thrée quarters of a yarde, so that you may discerne the principall cyons which issue from the principall rootes) you shall then bring your poales into the garden, and lay them along in the alleyes, by euery hill so many poales as shall be sufficient for the maine branches, which happely the first yéere will not be aboue two or thrée poales at the most to a hill, but in processe of time more, as foure or fiue, according to the prosperitie of the plants, and the largenesse of the hils. After you haue thus layd your poales, you shall then beginne to set them vp in this sort: first, you shall take a gaue-locke, or crow of iron, and strike it into the earth so neare vnto the roote of the Hoppe as is possible, prouided alwayes that you doe not bruise, or touch the roote, and so stroake after stroake, cease not striking till you haue made a hoale at least two foote déepe, and make them a little slantwise inward towards the hill, that the poales in their standing may shoote outwards and hould their greatest distance in the toppes: this done you shall place the poales in those hoales, thus made with the iron crow, and with another péece of woode, made rammer-wise, that is to say, as bigge at the neather end as the biggest part of the poale, or somewhat more, you shall ramme in the poales, and beate the earth firme and hard about them: alwayes prouided, that you touch not any branch, or as little as you may beate with your rammer within betwéene the poales, onely on the out-side make them so fast that the winde, or weather, may not disorder or blow them downe: then lay to the bottome of euery poale the branch which shall ascend it, and you shall sée in a short space, how out of their owne natures, they will imbrace and climbe about them.
Now, if it happen after your Hoppes are growne vp, yet not come to their full perfection, that any of your poales chance to breake, you shall then take a new poale, and with some soft gréene rushes, or the inmost gréene barke of an Alder-trée, tye the toppe of the Hoppe to the toppe of the new poale, then draw the broken poale out of the Hoppe (I meane that part which being broken lyeth vpon the ground) and as you saw it did winde about the olde poale (which is euer the same way that the sunne runnes) so you shall winde it about the new poale: then loosening the earth a little from the neather part of the broken poale, you may with your owne strength pull it cleane out of the earth, and place the new poale in his roome. Now, there be some which are excéeding curious in pulling vp these olde poales, and rather then they will shake the earth, or loosen the mould, they will make a paire of large pincers, or tarriers of iron, at least fiue foote long with sharpe téeth, and a clasping hooke to hould the téeth together, when they haue taken fast hould vpon the poale so neare the earth as is possible, and then laying a peice of woode vnder the tarriers, and poysing downe the other ends to rest the poale out of the earth without any disturbance, the modell or fashion of which instrument is contained in this figure:
This instrument is not to be discommended, but to be held of good vse, either in binding grounds where the earth hardneth and houldeth the poale more then fast, or in the strength and heate of summer, when the drynesse of the mould will by no meanes suffer the poale to part from it: but otherwise it is néedlesse and may without danger be omitted.
As soone as you haue sufficiently set euery hill with poales, and that there is no disorder in your worke, you shall when the Hoppes beginne to climbe, note if their be any cyons or branches which doe forsake the poales, and rather shoote alongst the ground then looke vp to their supporters, and all such as you shall so finde, you shall as before I sayd, either with soft gréene rushes, or the gréene barke of Elder, tye them gently vnto the poales, and winde them about, in the same course that the sunne goes, as oft as conueniently you can: and this you shall doe euer after the dew is gone from the ground, and not before, and this must be done with all possible speede, for that cyon which is the longest before it take vnto the poale is euer the worst and brings forth his fruit in the worst season.
Of the Hils. Now, as touching the making of your hils, you shall vnderstand that although generally they are not made the first yéere, yet it is not amisse if you omit that scruple, and beginne to make your hils as soone as you haue placed your poales, for if your industry be answerable to the desert of the labour, you shall reape as good profit the first yéere, as either the second or the third. To beginne therefore to make your hils, you shall make you an instrument like a stubbing Hoe, which is a toole wherewith labourers stubbe rootes out of decayed woode-land grounds, onely this shall be somewhat broader and thinner, somewhat in fashion (though twice so bigge) vnto a Coopers Addes, with a shaft at least foure foote long: some onely for this purpose vse a fine paring spade, which is euery way as good, and as profitable, the fashion of which is in this figure.