The Country Housewife's Family Companion - Part 3



Of Cheap, Approved, and Experienced
MEDICINES and REMEDIES
for
Divers Diseases incident to Human Bodies.

THE first medicine I here present the public with is, according to the 
gentleman's character of it, the greatest one in the world (and which I 
rather believe, as it comes from a disinterested, worthy person, owner of 
a considerable landed estate, and one who, by his great learning, travels, 
and experience, has found out and made many excellent discoveries in 
medicine, agriculture, mechanics, &c.) and from his recommendation of it, 
it has been try'd at and about Gaddesden in several cases of diseases in 
the human body, and done great service; particularly to my near neighbour 
Mr. Richard Hanowell, who, having been afflicted with the King's-evil a 
long time, in and about his head, so as to have several running sores or 
ulcers next his cheek and throat, was at the expence of about five pounds, 
for bottles of liquor to cure the same, from a famous London practitioner 
in physic and curer of evils, which, as Mr. Hanowell declared to me, made 
him worse instead of better; then by my advice he drank the quicksilver-
water, which he made from time to time by my lending him a pound of 
quicksilver that I bought for my own use (for I take half a pint of the 
same water every morning fasting, which frees me from all cholicks, &c ) 
which has had such salubrious effects on Mr. Hanowell, that on the 25th 
October, 1748, he shewed me the places where his ulcers for years together 
run, so sound, that he pinched the parts as a proof their soundness, and 
they seemed to me to be as well as any other part of his face. And what is 
singularly honourable in this generous gentleman, he, without any 
obligation to me (though I am under much to him) has been pleased to 
correspond with me, I believe, to the exchanging of near thirty letters; 
not only on the subject of quicksilver, but likewise upon many secrets of 
great importance for the good of his country; which, with many others from 
different gentlemen, I intend (as I have leave for so doing) to publish, 
if I can meet with tolerable encouragement.

The best Cure in the whole World for the Pox, King's-Evil, Leprosy, Itch, 
Gout, Rheumatism, Scurvy, &c. &c. according to the following Letter, by 
the Use of Quicksilver-Water.

To Mr. William Ellis, a Farmer, at Little-Gaddesden, near Hempstead, in 
Hertfordshire.

London, Nov. 12, 1745.

SIR,

I AM very sorry to find your friend afflicted with the gout once or twice 
a year; however, I cannot but think it very happy for him, that he has 
already met with a medicine (though not a very agreeable one to take) that 
acts so quickly, and restores him to walking so effectually. I know a 
friend of mine that used to take one spoonful at a time of spirits of 
hartshorn, in the midst of great fts of the gout, which by repeating every 
night, and sweating much by it, soon carried off the fit, and enabled him 
to mount his horse, and as he was old and gross, the horse brought him, by 
degrees, to his feet. Now I look upon sal volatile to act in the very same 
manner without any material difference, and every body knows the gum 
guaiacum to be a most noted specific in the rheumatism, and very laudably 
so in the gout too, so that I would have you regard your medicine very 
much. However, as the mercury-water has such grand effects in rheumatick 
cases, and can do him no harm, in or between the fts, by way of diet-
drink, I will venture to say, if it does not actually free a temperate 
person of a youngish gout, yet it will certainly reduce the frequency of 
his fts; and by the same laws, much abate the rigour of them; and I would 
willingly have you try, tho' I cannot really warrant this opinion from 
practice, or trial, though there is great reason to be certain of the good 
effects intended, as I could evince at large; assureing you at the same 
time of the innocence and salubriousness of this water. You may depend on 
it to cure your neice's eyes, if she drinks half a pint night and morning, 
and about a pint with her dinner; two or three times a day bathing her 
eyes with a warm spoonful of it, provided her complaint is really 
scorbutick. And I doubt not but it would much allay, if not cure a 
confrm'd evil. I would advise the issue to be continued. The doctor's 
application is good but will not remove the cause, viz. a scurvy in the 
habit, which if it be her case, his medicine may repell it from the eyes, 
and throw it (if there was not an issue) upon the lungs, so as to induce a 
consumption, or perhaps vitiate the blood, so as to bring on fevers, &c. 
She can but try this agreeable kind of drink, for as many months as she 
pleases. Therefore a pound of quicksilver, which costs but about four 
shillings and sixpence, or five shillings, I think will serve many years, 
boiled or rather simmer'd in any quantity of water, in an iron pot, or a 
glazed earthen pot, for no other metal will do, for the space of five or 
six hours or more. The water should never be drank freezing cold, but set 
a little before the fire. By what I find lately, it is a water that will 
not corrupt in bottles for a long time, if ever: For it destroys all kind 
of animalcula, and resists and destroys all manner of acidity and 
fermentation in the water it is boiled in, which shews it to be the 
highest alcali in the world, and certainly the most minute and divisible 
and I am persuaded, all the particles of the effluvia that mix with the 
water are perfectly and minutely globular, and ftted by such form and 
smoothness to enter and pass in the circulation thro' the imperceptible 
vascular system, or it could not effect what it does. Let a mangy horse or 
any other beast drink constantly of it, and bathe the scrophulous parts 
with it by a spunge, they will soon fall off, and the blood be purifed, 
which I desire you will try the first opportunity. I cured some time ago a 
pointer of my own of an universal mange, so bad, that he had scarcely a 
hair left on his body, and that too within four weeks, by the last 
mentioned method. I observed the itching much allayed in seven days. In 
seven or eight more, the scabs began to dry and shell off, and clean new 
hair appeared growing underneath, and in less than five weeks he was 
entirely sweet, clean, and new cloathed, which my groom, and the chymist I 
bought the seven ounces of mercury of, to boil, can testify.--The way I 
came by this secret was from a surgeon, who shewed me his nephew, a London 
apprentice, whom he had cured of the pox by this water alone, after having 
been twice salivated, and had not strength enough to go thro' a third 
course. He said he met with the secret in a German old manuscript of a 
practitioner, but had always despised it till this lucky opportunity 
offer'd. I am, Sir,

Your sincere Friend and Servant.

P. S. These and other reasons make me expect it will cure the pox in the 
gentlest and most merciful manner. Pray give it to any poor body that has 
the itch, without telling them what it is. After this you are at liberty 
to publish it, at any time, or indeed as soon as you please.


A second Account of the great Virtues of Quicksilver-Water in the Cure of 
the Pox, Scurvy, Mange, Scald-Head, Rheumatism, Worms, &c.

London, Nov. 30, 1745.

SIR,

ONE pound of quicksilver will infuse and communicate its effluvial virtues 
to five hundred or one thousand boilings of fresh water, and yet suffer 
little or no diminution in its weight; if it is boiled in the water 10 or 
11 hours, it will turn the water of an ash-colour, which is only owing to 
a stronger impregnation of its dusky and most minute effluvia, and this is 
perhaps the best cure in the world for an inveterate scurvy, mange, or 
scald-head, obliging the patient to drink constantly of it with his 
victuals, and in a morning fasting, half a pint, and the same going to 
bed; washing the scabious head, body and joints, with the said water once 
or twice a day, and avoiding all other drink, except a chance glass or two 
of wine. Avoid all salt meats during the cure. You will be surprised how 
the stubborn symptoms will yield, subside, and vanish, sometimes in a few 
weeks, generally in a few months, restoreing the patient in rest, health, 
strength and complection, in a most surprising manner, without uneasy or 
torturing physic; for this medicine acts as an alterative, and may justly 
be said to be the noblest bathe in the world. I speak this from the field 
of experience, and think you deserving the knowledge thereof, myself by 
mere chance having come by this excellent secret. I also find it will 
destroy worms and botts in man or beast; and I have very great reason to 
believe, it will by a continuance and perseverance very safely and easily 
cure the pox and rheumatism; it is certain it pervades all the 
capillaries, even to the pores of perspiration; and is a most irresistable 
alterative, allaying and mollifying all the corrosive matter in the animal 
system, or it could not effect the truths I have mentioned above, and been 
an eye witness of under my own direction, tho' I do not profess physic.

I am, sir,
Your faithful humble Servant.
 

SIR,

   I have to subjoin, that if you add to the mercury-water regimen, the 
giving the patient every night going to bed the bigness only of a small 
pea of the crude mercury, swallowed down in half a glass of water, it will 
much facilitate the cure in scorbutic or rheumatic cases. The common itch, 
as it is presently catched, falls before these two, generally, in three 
weeks time: Worms in a few days. But it will require a longer time to 
eradicate old scrophulous complaints, scald-heads, and stubborn 
rheumatisms, which seem to be universal rather than local. And I can 
assure you it is excellent in the stone and gravel; also for bilious 
cholicks, occasioned by pungent hot humours in the intestines; because I 
find it allays and qualifes their pungency, by its alcalous quality (or 
something else that we cannot account for) as chalk, &c. mollifes vinegar 
or sour beer. And the water should be continued even after cure (by way of 
bath or spaw drinking) for some months. Not but the water itself has been 
found to effect a certain cure in obstinate cases; but it is as certain, 
that the least quantity of the gross quicksilver (and the less the better) 
taken every night, till the symptoms vanish, does much expedite the cure. 
Yet this water alone has also absolutely eradicated the pox without the 
least ruffle to the constitution. And it will kill the bugs in beds and 
furniture, provided they be washed with it, or well sprinkled by means of 
a brush, as bookbinders spot their leaves.


An Account of a most cheap and famous Cure made on the face and eyes of 
Mrs. Knight, of Betloe-ground, in Buckinghamshire, by the use of Cows 
Milk. And also how a Person's wounded Thigh was cured by a most easy 
Remedy.

THIS woman now living (in the year 1748) wife to the late Mr. Knight, an 
eminent grazier, living within a few miles of Ivinghoe and of Aylesbury in 
Buckinghamshire, whose character for hospitality and honesty will remain a 
lasting example to others, was grievously afflicted with an inflammation 
in her face and eyes, to such a degree as obliged her to be under the 
hands of that noted surgeon, the late Mr. Roland of Aylesbury, during 
almost the space of one year, till the expence amounted to about thirty 
pounds, but without a cure. Now it happened, that in this interim of time, 
Mr. Edward Thorne, a butcher, of great dealing, living at Little Gaddesden 
in Hertfordshire, and who killed all or most of the Duke of Bridgwater's 
[sic: Bridgewather's] beasts for his numerous family, had a violent 
scorbutick humour broke out in his thigh, that so lamed him, as to 
necessitate his having recourse to a profess'd surgeon, but 
notwithstanding his application Mr. Thorn was still in a very painful sad 
condition; insomuch that the late good Scroop Duke of Bridgwater, [sic: 
Bridgewather] who was a nobleman remarkably easy of access, and ready 
(unless a case was falsely represented to him, as I have known done) to 
assist a neighbour in distress, seeing this man (his butcher) in a very 
decrepit condition, ask'd him what was the matter? He told his Grace how 
lame he was by a wound in his thigh, and that he was hardly any thing the 
better for what his surgeon had done to him. Upon this, the Duke offer'd 
to give him his letter for carrying it to London, and to wait on that 
celebrated surgeon the late Mr. Bouchier, for his advice; for you must 
know, that this person was so skilful as to be encouraged (as I am 
informed) by a large yearly salary from the government, for giving his 
advice gratis to his Majesty King George the Second's subjects; and 
abundance of service he did to great numbers of people, amongst whom was 
this Mr. Thorne, who when he had presented him with the Duke's letter, and 
seen his wound, asked him who was his surgeon? He told him. Says Mr. 
Bouchier, Go tell him he is a blockhead, for proceeding thus in a wrong 
manner, and bid him get a black-lead pipe thrust into the wound, there to 
remain for the pus to evacuate through it, and as the wound heals, it will 
push out the pipe by degrees, which must from time to time have its end 
clip'd off with a pair of scissars, lest the shirt catch it and tear it 
out, for no salve will affect this sort of wound. When Mr. Thorne had 
received this sort of direction, he thanked him and retired; but just as 
he had got out of the parlour, a woman with a child in her arms, and 
bolsters on its inflamed face and eyes, entered the same, for asking Mr. 
Bouchier's advice; which raising a desire in Mr. Thorne to hear what he 
would say on this case, he stood at the parlour-door, and heard him ask 
her, Who had been her surgeon? She told him such a one. I thought, said 
he, he had had more wit, than to go on so. Woman (says he) go and wash the 
child's eyes morning and evening with warm milk directly taken from the 
cow, and it will cure it; but do not take off the bandage all at once; 
leave it off by degrees. Mr. Thorne, hearing this, came away; and when at 
home, soon went to Mr. Knight, with whom he usually grazed and fatted his 
horned cattle; and there related to Mrs. Knight this child's case, and the 
surgeon Mr. Bouchier's advice, which made such an impression on her mind, 
that she directly applied the same remedy to her inflamed face and eyes, 
and in a little time got a perfect cure of both.--The like happened to two 
of my neighbours about March, 1747. One was in prodigious pain and almost 
blind with an inflammation in her face and eyes, insomuch that she was not 
capable to make her straw hats, for that was her profession, but every now 
and then was obliged to lie down on her bed, or sit up by the fire-side. 
Upon this I told her husband the virtue of cow's milk, and advised him to 
have it applied to his wife's eyes, accordingly, the woman morning and 
night duly bathed her face and eyes with the warm milk, and soon recovered 
her sight, which induced her to acquaint her sister, that was much in the 
same condition, with her success; and as she made use of the same means 
she had the like cure. This most excellent medicine of warm milk (tho' 
seemingly a mean one) I recommend to cure all inflammations of the face 
and eyes, whether they be blood-shotten, or otherwise damaged by hot 
scorbutick humours.--N. B. The black-lead pipe was at first four inches in 
length, with a hole in the middle of it, a little bigger than that of a 
common tobacco-pipe, and of its shape, which by the help of a bandage kept 
in the wound, till it descended by leisure degrees, and was diminished by 
frequently clipping of it, till the cure was perfected.--I have also to 
add, that upon a more particular inquiry into the distemper that affected 
the above-mentioned woman's eyes, she told me herself, that before the 
application of the cow's milk she had a hot water, that now and then 
discharged so fast through her nostrils, that it would sometimes run, and 
was of so sharp and hot a nature as to raise little blisters on that part 
of her face it fell on from her eyes; so that they were inflamed to a 
degree of forcing her to keep her head in darkness a great part of the 
day, because she was not able to behold the light, nor the fire, which 
render'd the poor woman incapable of providing for her family as she used 
to do, by platting of wheat straws, and sewing them into hats; but by the 
balsamic cooling milk alone she was in a little time restored to good 
sight, and capable of following her business.


How a young Man had the sore Piles, by tippling too much October Butt 
stale Beer, and how cured.

THIS young man lives at Market-street, in Bedfordshire, four miles from 
Little-Gaddesden, and who so accustomed himself to drink strong, stale 
butt-beer, that he became sadly tormented with the piles. Upon which he 
applied to the late famous surgeon, John Copping, Esq; in Market-street, 
who directed him to take half an ounce of flower of brimstone every 
morning, in milk, till it cured him; and cure him it did, as he declared 
to me. And no wonder, since, as the learned Dr. Quincy observes, "The 
flower is certainly balsamic and cleansing, and good against all diseases 
of the breast, and several other parts of the human body, used either 
inwardly or outwardly."--Others say, sitting over the smoak of 
frankincense and pomegranate shells will cure them.


A Gentleman Traveller's Character of the Flower of Brimstone.

THIS gentleman said, He had been a traveller almost all over Europe, and 
that it was his real opinion, That no body need take physic, if they took 
half an ounce of flower of brimstone in milk every morning, as he did, and 
drank sage-tea after it.


Dr. ---- his Method of taking Flower of Brimstone for his pimpled Neck.

THIS gentleman, a famous doctor of divinity, well known in Surrey and 
London, took as much flower of brimstone every morning, throughout the 
year (except in frosty weather) as would mix in a spoonful of milk, and 
would drink a large tea-cup of milk after it, for dispersing and curing of 
pimples, that were apt to come out in his neck. And Dr. Quincy says, "That 
it is the plenty, in a great measure, that lessens its esteem."


An excellent experienced Remedy for the Gravel.

Notwithstanding this is a Chronical, and a Disease that has proved fatal 
to Thousands, its direful Effects are easily prevented, if the following 
Directions are timely applied, and duly observed.

Sweeten water-gruel with honey, and eat a mess of it without bread every 
morning fasting. And if a person is much afflicted with the gravel, let 
him eat the same mess oftner. This receit was communicated to a gentleman, 
my neighbour, by a physician at London, who telling another of it, they 
said, Of all the things they had made use of for this purpose, none did 
them so much good as this. For as the gruel and honey are both of an open 
slippery nature, they consequently make the parts slippery, and bring away 
the gravel easily. But yet this remedy may be made much more effectual, if 
their cheap, common, small drink is composed according to the following 
receit, and drank indeed of small malt-beer.--To twenty-two gallons of 
water put nine pounds of treacle, which mix and boil one hour briskly, and 
so a lesser quantity, if thought fit, in the same proportion, with hops, 
or better without them, and work it with yeast till it is fit to barrel 
up.--By these two liquors, that are of an opening cleansing nature, the 
cause of breeding gravel will be much prevented, and if bred, will be 
easily discharged.

   A Diet Drink.--Eight ounces of sena, 4 of carraway seeds, 4 ounces of 
sweet-fennel seeds, 4 ounces of anniseeds, 4 ounces of sassafras, four 
ounces of sarsaparilla, 4 ounces of hartshorn shavings, 2 ounces of ivory 
shavings, 6 ounces of stick-liquorice, 1 ounce of rhubarb, liverwort, 
brooklime, water-cresses, water-dock-root, wild fetches, clivers, 
dandelion-roots, parsley-roots, elder-buds, nettle-tops, scurvy-grass, one 
dozen of Seville oranges. The seeds to be bruised, and the liquorice to be 
sliced, the rhubarb to be grated, and put into the vessel last. The sena 
to be infused in a pitcher of the beer. The scurvy-grass and wild-fetches 
to be bruised and put into a flannel bag in the vessel at last, and the 
oranges to be squeezed and put into the vessel rind and all. All the other 
things to be boiled well together and strained off. Two or three handfuls 
of each of the herbs and roots.--This diet-drink was made by Mrs. Sibley, 
a yeoman's wife, at Water-End, in Hertfordshire, and sold by her at 18 d. 
per quart, chiefly in the spring season, for curing and preventing the 
scurvy, rheumatism, and other distempers; being infused in a frkin 
quantity of middling beer.

London, June 1, 1749

SIR,

   HERE follow the receits which I promised on Friday last, having now 
found the memorandum, which I had (as I surmised) put up very carefully 
together, and then overlook'd. The first my wife presents you with, being 
what she practised when she lived with her aunt in Wales, who kept 
fourteen cows, &c. and generally killed two large hogs every year.

   The Welch Way of preparing Hogs Guts for Puddings.--First take some of 
the fat off, and cut the guts in proper lengths (longer or shorter, as you 
chuse) letting water run through them till the dung is clean out of them, 
then with clean hands turn them by the help of a round stick, and wash 
them clean with water; put them into a pail or pan, with two or three 
handfuls of salt among them; get a whisp of clean straw, and work them 
well about with that in your hand, till they froth; then wash them well, 
and repeat the salt and agitation; then wash them again, and put more 
salt, and two or three handfuls of crabs mash'd to pieces; lastly, scour 
them well with your hands, taking care not to break them; then wash them 
very clean, and put them into water with a handful or two of salt, and let 
them lie till next day; repeat fresh water and salt to them two or three 
days, and, when you are about to fll them, wash them out with fair water 
only.--N. B. When they are thoroughly clean, they will lie on the back of 
your hand without slipping off.--Hogs or sheeps maws, when intended for 
puddings, should, after their contents are emptied and washed, be first 
well scraped and scalded, and then served as aforesaid.

   Welch Black-puddings.--When you kill your beast, receive the blood in a 
clean earthen pan, with a handful of salt in it, stirring it continually 
as it flows from your hand, till you find a large coagulum, or lump, stick 
to your hand, which throw away; then drain the blood into a clean pan, and 
let it stand till you use it as follows: Pour scalding hot milk upon some 
whole oatmeal-grouts, let it stand all night, then mix near one half milk 
with your blood, adding thereto some of the hog's fat or leaf, a little 
winter-savory, thyme and pennyroyal, all chopt very fine, and season'd 
with a little salt and black-pepper. Mix all these very well of a due 
consistence, that the composition be not too thick nor too thin, and fll 
your guts; but be sure to leave room enough for them to swell in boiling, 
and then tie them up in the form of a figure of eight circular. Lay them 
but one upon another in a wide kettle of water, just ready to boil. Let 
them boil, very gently lest they burst, about six or seven minutes; then 
take them out, and lay them upon clean wheat-straw on a sieve before the 
fire; turn them, and they will be soon dry; then repeat the boiling, dry 
them as before, and they are done. Keep them upon fresh dry straw in a 
sieve for use. Let them have air enough, and they will keep a fortnight or 
three weeks, wiping them now and then.

   Welch white Hogs-puddings--Are made by pouring warm milk upon whole 
grouts, letting them soak 12 hours or more; then add some of the best hogs 
fat cut very fine, and season them with salt, pepper, nutmeg, a little 
honey to your palate, and a few currants well wash'd and pick'd. With this 
mixture fll your larger guts, but not too full, and boil them about as 
long again, as the smaller black sort, and in the same manner.

   Welch Way of making Puddings with Hogs or Sheeps Maws.--In Wales they 
do not throw away the hogs or sheeps maws, but after they are cleansed as 
above, they fll them with the following composition, viz. Blood prepared 
as aforesaid, and about half as much milk, stir in a proper quantity of 
oatmeal, to which add a good quantity of suet, shred very small; some of 
the herbs to be winter-savory, thyme, marjoram, parnel, and lambs-tongue, 
some cives or young onions, and the white part of leeks cut small, with 
pepper and salt; observing that none of the ingredients are over 
predominant when flled, and leaving a little space to swell; skewer them 
up and tie them, throw them into boiling water, and boil them very gently 
near half an hour. These eat very well, if cut in slices, and fry'd with a 
little butter.

   Sussex Pudding.--There are two ways of making this famous pudding, a 
flat way and a round way. On the 13th of June, 1749, baiting at the Cat-
Inn at East-Grinstead, I saw the cook-maid seemingly put a flat cake of 
dough on a wooden paddle, about the bigness and shape of a round trencher, 
into the boiling water of a pot that had meat in it for dinner, which, by 
a long handle to it, she held in the water till it boiled hardish; then 
she drew away the wooden paddle or skimmer, and left the pudding-cake to 
sink and boil longer. Now this pudding, she told me, was made with flower, 
milk, eggs, and a little butter kneaded together, and when boiled enough, 
it was taken out, slit in two, and butter put into it. Thus she made this 
Sussex pudding, that was to be eaten with meat instead of bread.--The 
other way is, to make a round pudding of the same ingredients, which (I 
suppose) is to be tied up in a cloth, and in the middle of this pudding 
they put a piece of butter, and so inclose it with the dough that the 
butter cannot boil out. When boiled enough, they find the butter run to 
oil, and so well soaked into the pudding, that they eat it with meat 
instead of bread, or without meat as a delicious pudding.

   How to boil salt Meat to the greatest Advantage.--As the ignorance of 
some may lead them to commit a gross mistake in boiling of salted beef, 
bacon, or any other salt meat, I thought it not foreign to my present 
undertaking to inform them, that if salted meat is put at first into 
boiling water, it will surely keep in the salt, and further harden the 
flesh, so as to make it eat very disagreeably. Now to prevent this, it is 
only putting the salted meat at first into the water cold, and then as the 
meat gradually heats with the water, the salt will boil out, a sufficient 
scum arise, and the flesh will hereby be made to eat fresher, tenderer, 
and much more agreeable, than if it was at first put into boiling water.

   To pickle Sprats.--One of our country housewives pickles sprats in the 
following manner: The sprats, she says, must be washed and laid in a 
glazed pot, and between every layer salt must be spread, and so on till 
the pot be full; thus they should lie three days, then taken out, and put 
into the same or another glazed pot, flled up with a mixture of vinegar 
and water, which must be put into an oven, as soon as the bread is drawn. 
Thus, she says, sprats may be kept, for eating like anchovies, some time; 
but, I think, sprats will not retain an anchovy colour and taste so well 
this way, as if a few bay leaves were first put into the pot, and then 
between every layer of sprats, a mixture of bay-salt and salt-petre; and 
this is better in an anchovy-tub than in a glazed pot, because the tub may 
be turned bottom upwards every now and then, for by this method the sprats 
will be cured without baking, and in about two months time fit to eat raw 
like an anchovy.

   To pickle fresh Herrings.--Our country housewife says, its only washing 
them, and putting them into a barrel or glazed pot in layers or rows, with 
some salt between every layer. But I am sure it would be better done, if 
their heads were cut off, and then between every layer or row of herrings, 
a mixture put of bay-salt and salt-petre, till a glazed earthen pan is 
full, and baked in a very gentle heat of an oven.--In Kent they have a 
custom to give pickled sprats in their public houses to their customers 
(drinkers); and in London some do the same by pickled herrings, or rather 
baked ones, which by their reddish colour and agreeable taste please 
much.--But if you would be at a greater expence, after they are scaled, 
gutted and washed, you are to lay the herrings in a heap, and strew a 
little salt over them (as they do at Dover, for preparing them to dry over 
smoak in their herring hang-room, for making red-herrings of them, as I 
have seen done) to drain two or three hours their bloody part out. Then 
rub each herring dry between a cloth, and have ready a mixture of pepper, 
salt, cloves and ginger, a little shred onion and lemon-peel, for with 
this you are to sprinkle every layer of herrings, till the pan is full; 
and after you have put a pint and half of red wine over thirty herrings, 
and tied paper over the pot, bake them with bread.

   The case of Mr. Glanville, of Edgware, in the County of Middlesex, who 
was very near poisoned by eating Muscles. This person being a great lover 
of this shell-fish, after he had eat a boiled parcel of them, began to be 
sick, and his sickness increased upon him to that degree, that he swelled 
so much, as not to be able to see out of his eyes. Upon this there were 
several medicines given him, but none of them did him any service, till at 
last, when he could hardly speak, he was heard to call for oil; they gave 
him some, till it made him vomit up the muscles, and at the same time 
anointed his body all over with oil, which had so quick an effect on him, 
that he was presently cured, and became a sound man. Now it was not the 
muscles (though at first thought so) that poison'd Mr. Glanville: No, it 
was a very little crab insect, that lodged in the open part of the 
muscle's body, and yet lies so hid, as not to be perceived by the eyes of 
the careless ignorant eater, for this crab insect is hardly bigger than a 
thetch or small pea; it has a round body (crab-like) and a broad tail, 
with its legs shaped like lobsters claws, as plainly appeared to me by the 
sight of one kept in spirits of wine, and so preserved by Mr. Glanville, 
to shew that which once had very near killed him.--To remark on this case, 
I have to add, that there are few muscles (as I am credibly informed) 
without one of these crabs in its body. And although it is common for 
people to take out what is called the beards before they eat them, yet 
most are ignorant of this poisonous insect. And if such an ingenious 
person as Mr. Glanville is, who seems to me to be possess'd of brighter 
parts than any other tradesman I ever conversed with, was through 
ignorance insnared to eat this dangerous crab, how much more easily will a 
more vulgar person eat a muscle without any suspicion of such a fatal 
quality harbouring in it, hence I am also led to observe the great 
carelessness and supine neglect of our English virtuosi, who study much 
the refined sublime parts of natural philosophy, and yet neglect numerous 
matters, to my knowledge, which ought to be made known to people, who for 
want of timely instruction may innocently eat poisonous things, and be 
killed by them.

   A Woman poison'd by eating a roasted Duck.--Mrs. Bell, a Cornish woman, 
and wife of Mr. James Bell, that now keeps the fine Green-Man-Inn at 
Gaddesden, tells me that one Madam Beazely at Falmouth, about the year 
1738, bought a duck in the market that was well fleshed. This she roasted, 
and when she had eaten her bellyful of it, she began to sicken and swell; 
upon which three doctors were sent for, but notwithstanding all the 
medicines they gave her, she continued swelling, and died in less than 
half an hour's time. Now, I suppose, the duck had swallowed a young toad, 
and that those who draw'd the duck might have broke the poisonous part of 
the toad in drawing; and not being wash'd before roasting, the poison 
might have had this fatal effect, for Mrs. Bell says, it was the doctor's 
opinion she was poisoned in this manner.

   How a Hertfordshire Woman, her Family, and a Hog, were poisoned by 
eating an Herb.--In the hard frosty spring of 1740, a poor woman that 
lived at Studham, two miles distant from Gaddesden, gathered a herb that 
grew in a hedge, called Jack-jump-about, for boiling it with a piece of 
meat. It was like mint, and as hardly any other boiling herb was then to 
be got, she made use of this. One child died by it, and another had like 
to have had the same fate, and the mother narrowly escaped, but the hog 
that eat the pot-liquor was killed by it.

   How two Buckinghamshire Girls were poisoned by eating Henbane-root.--At 
Pitstone, about three miles from Gaddesden, liveth a widow woman that 
holds a farm in her hands, who had three girls that one day took a fancy 
to dig up some henbane-roots that grew in and about the farm yard, and 
scraping one it appeared to them like a little white carrot; one of the 
girls refused to eat any of it, but the other two did, who in the night-
time were taken so bad, that the mother thought them bewitch'd; at last, 
the healthy girl confess'd the matter, and discover'd how her two sisters 
had eat henbane-root, which made their mother send to Leighton for a 
doctor, who by proper medicines made shift to cure them; but he said, that 
if they had eaten and drank after it, he could not have cured them.

   How a Man accustomed himself to cure his Tooth-ach with Henbane-seed.--
This man named Richards, lying at Rinxsell near Gaddesden, when troubled 
with the tooth-ach would first put some tobacco into the bowl of a pipe, 
and some henbane-seed on that, then tobacco, then henbane-seed, till his 
pipe was full. This he smoaked, and declared it had such virtue as to make 
worms come out of his teeth, to the cure of the tooth-ach, for that time; 
for this man never smoaked, but when troubled with the tooth-ach, and then 
it was in this manner: And no wonder it thus effects a cure, since it is 
of a stupifying nature like tobacco. It grows in yards and dry ditches, 
and has pods that hold much small seed.

   A School-boy poisoned by Vitriol.--A boy that went to school at ---- 
put a bit of vitriol into his mouth about the bigness of a nut, and 
suffered it to dissolve into his stomach; the consequence whereof was, 
that his chaps and belly swell'd, and he was poison'd to that degree as 
endanger'd his life; wherefore many schoolmasters will not suffer their 
scholars to lick a pen, because vitriol is a chief ingredient in the 
making of ink.

   A Cow poisoned by eating Laurel-Leaves.--At Bovingdon, five miles from 
Gaddesden, a gentleman had his laurel-hedge cut, and his cow having free 
access to it, eat what she would, but quickly swell'd and died.

   A Man poison'd by eating a Toad.--In the London-Evening-Post news-
paper, dated March 26, 1741, there was inserted the following account, 
from Salisbury: Last night was buried at Hinton, near Bradford, in 
Wiltshire, one James Silcock, who being very much accustomed to eat horse-
flesh and dog-flesh, and other disagreeable things, did undertake to eat a 
frog and a mole; after he had eat the mole, the person that undertook to 
provide the frog, by mistake brought a toad, which he having eaten, and 
swallowed a plenty of liquor, immediately died.

   Several Persons poisoned by Poison laid for Rats.--Dublin, 26 Novemb. 
1748, we hear from Carlow, of a very melancholy accident which happened 
there last week; one Mr. Buttler having mixed up poison with some oatmeal 
for the rats, a maid-servant, who was not acquainted with it, made use of 
it for breakfast; by which means two men, two maid-servants, and a child, 
were poisoned; one of the women died that night, and the other is 
despaired of, but the men and child will recover.

   Rabbits poisoned by Hemlock.--This herb grows in meadows of the wetter 
sort, and other places; it has killed many tame rabbits by ignorant 
gatherers of it giving it them instead of dog-parsley, though it is easily 
known by its smell, for this has a stinking scent next to assafœtida, but 
in make very much like dog-parsley, that is excellent rabbit meat, for it 
will not pot a tame rabbit. Dr. Quincy says, at page 195, that this plant 
grows so much like common parsley, that it is difficult to distinguish it 
when young, therefore in all probability they have sometimes been gathered 
and sold together; for, says he, there have been many instances of 
persons, and sometimes whole families being suddenly taken ill, so as to 
occasion suspicion of poison, when they had reason to suspect it in the 
parsley, by having eat stuffed beef as is common, or some other food where 
that had been used. It first affects persons with giddiness and dimness of 
sight, and afterwards operates violently by vomit and stool; fat broths 
and oily liquids are the antidotes.



Of Poultry and their Eggs.

POULTRY and their eggs come more immediately under the care and management 
of our country housewife, than any other outward part of the farmer's 
business; and accordingly many farmers think it their interest to let 
their wives have all the profit of their eggs and poultry, for raising 
money to buy what we call common or trivial necessaries in the house, as 
sugar, plumbs, spices, salt, oatmeal, &c. &c. which piece of encouragement 
engages our housewife and her maid-servants to take special care of 
feeding her poultry in due time, setting her hens early, and making capons 
at a proper age.

   The best Feed for Dunghill Fowls, to make them lay early Eggs, and many 
of them --Is horsebeans and hempseed. Of the first, a particular woman had 
such an opinion, that she preferred it to all others, and the rather as 
horsebeans in some wet summers grow in prodigious plenty, and are sold 
very cheap, sometimes for less than two shillings a bushel; hempseed 
indeed is dearer. As this last is furnished with much hot oil, as the 
horsebean is with a very hot quality, they both cause hens to lay in 
winter, when no other common seed can so well; but if hens were confined 
always in a room, it hinders very much their laying. The game hen lays 
most eggs, but they are commonly the least sort.

   Sorts of Hens.--The Hertfordshire dunghill fowls and their eggs have 
been in great esteem a long time, and at this time their eggs have the 
greater reputation of all others, insomuch that the very cryers of eggs 
about London streets take particular care to make the word Hertfordshire 
be well known; for our country is a Chiltern one, abounding with many 
hills, dry soils, gravelly rivers, plenty of most sorts of grain, and 
allow'd by professors of physick to be the healthiest air in England, all 
which undoubtedly contributes to the breeding of the best of eggs and 
soundest of dunghill fowls; a proof of which is very demonstrable, by the 
game cocks bred in Hertfordshire, that beat for the most part those bred 
in other counties. But I can't say our dunghill fowls exceed all others, 
for there are excellent sorts of the Poland, the Hamburgh, and the Darking 
dunghill fowls; the character of the last of which is hereafter inserted.

   Of Hens sitting, and of Chickens and young Ducks.--The game hen sits 
oftner than the dunghill hen, and will fight the hawk better in defence of 
her chickens: But as their legs are commonly as black as their feathers, 
few farmers keep them, because their blackish chickens will not sell like 
the white-leg'd dunghill sort. When a hen sits on her own eggs, she 
commonly hatches in three weeks, but when she sits on duck eggs, a month. 
If she has sat a week on duck eggs, and by accident the eggs are broke, or 
the hen too much disturbed, so that if she is set again on other duck 
eggs, she will not sit out her time; in such a case, if she is set again 
on the hen eggs, she will, because on these she sits a shorter time than 
on the duck eggs. A hen that sits beyond her time of three weeks seldom 
brings all her eggs to perfection, which is chiefly owing to her being set 
in a cold place, or going too far for her meat when off; but that is the 
best hen that hatches a day or two before the usual time. It is a fault to 
set a pullet with too many eggs. One was set with eighteen eggs, which she 
sat on well till the first chicken chirp'd, and then she was affrighted, 
ran away, and forsook the rest, so that our housewife could preserve but 
three, and for bringing them up she was forced to use more than ordinary 
care.--To have early chickens, an industrious housewife living at 
Gaddesden had a brood of chickens a fortnight old this 25th of February 
1747-8; she set her hen in a chimney corner that had no fire near it, but 
on the back of the same chimney there was a daily one kept, which struck 
such a sufficient heat to the corner, as enabled the hen to sit close in 
this cold season, and hatch twelve chickens, which our housewife kept in 
this place, giving them offald wheat, that was screened at the mill from 
good wheat, and now and then some wetted pollard; with these the chickens 
went on well, and for eating up what the chickens and their hen left, our 
housewife let in a laying hen now and then, so that here was no waste made.

   Dunghill Fowls, their Nature, by Mortimer.--The oldest are best 
sitters, and the youngest best layers, but good for neither if kept too 
fat. To breed right chickens is, from two to five years old; the best 
month is February, and so any time between that and Michaelmas [here Mr. 
Mortimer is wrong, for when a hen begins to moult, she ought not to be 
set, because her chickens then seldom live.] A hen sits (says he) twenty 
days; geese, ducks, and turkeys, thirty; let them have always meat by them 
while they sit, that they may not straggle from their eggs and chill them. 
One cock will serve ten hens. If fowls are fed with buck-wheat, they will 
lay more eggs than ordinary, and the same with hempseed; the buck-wheat 
whole, or ground and made into paste, which is the best way: It is a grain 
that will fatten hogs or fowls speedily, but they are commonly fatten'd 
with barley-meal made into a paste with milk; but wheat-flower is better.--
Mortimer, vol. I.

   To fatten Hens, Pullets, Chickens, Capons, or Turkeys.--Their coops 
must be kept very clean, for all ill smells and nastiness is prejudicial 
to the fattening of fowls, as contributing towards giving their flesh a 
bad tang, and an unwholsome quality; to this purpose, they should have 
also two troughs, that one may be scalded and dried, while the other is in 
use, and both meat and water, or other liquor, should be kept from each 
other free of any mixture. As to their meat, there may be several sorts 
made; one by boiling barley till it is tender in water, another parcel of 
it in skim milk, another in strong ale; when so boiled, a little coarse 
sugar may be mixed with it. Or make a paste with barley-meal, and water or 
skim milk. And as to their drink, let them have strong ale or skim milk, 
or water wherein a little brickdust is mixed; for if they have not 
something to scower their maws or crops, they will not thrive to 
expectation, therefore if brickdust is not put into their drink, either a 
little of that, or fine sand, should be mixed with their meat now and 
then, to get them an appetite, and make them digest their food the 
quicker; the ale will intoxicate them, and cause them to sleep much and 
fatten the sooner, but the milk tends most to the whitening of their 
flesh. Now it wants no demonstration by argument, to prove that variety of 
meats forward the expeditious fattening of any animal; in this case, 
therefore, give any of these fowls these several sorts of foods 
alternately; so will they be creating them an appetite while they are 
fattening, to the making of them exceeding fat in a little time.

   An ancient Author's Way to fatten Chickens.--Boil (says he) bread in 
milk, as though they were to eat it, but make it thick of the bread, which 
slice into it in thin slices, not so thick as if it were to make a 
pudding; but so that when the bread is eaten out, there may some liquid 
milk remain for the chickens to drink; or that at first you may take up 
some liquid milk in a spoon, if you industriously avoid the bread; sweeten 
very well the pottage with good kitchen sugar of four-pence per pound, so 
put it into the trough before them; put therein but little at a time (two 
or three spoonfuls) that you may not clog them, and feed them five times a 
day, between their awaking in the morning and their roosting at night. 
Give them no other drink, the milk that remaineth after they have eaten 
the bread is sufficient, neither give them gravel or aught else; keep 
their coops very clean, as also their troughs, cleansing them well every 
morning. To half a dozen very little chickens, little bigger than 
blackbirds, an ordinary porringer full every day may serve, and in eight 
days they will be prodigiously fat. One penny loaf, and less than two 
quarts of milk, and about half a pound of sugar, will serve little ones 
the whole time; bigger chickens will require more, and two or three days 
longer time; when any of them are at their height of fat, you must eat 
them, for if they live longer, they will fall back and grow lean; be sure 
to make their pottage very sweet.--Or you may pound rice in a mortar till 
it is very small, and the smaller the better, for then it may be made into 
a paste with scalded milk and coarse sugar, which if given to chickens by 
a little at a time, so that they are not gorged, will fatten them in a 
very little time; let them have ale or good small beer to drink, and give 
their meat warm.--But there is a receit that directs the fattening of 
chickens with rice without pounding or grinding it, only to boil rice in 
milk till it be very tender and pulpy, as when you make milk-pottage; it 
must be thick, that a spoon may stand an end in it; sweeten this very well 
with ordinary sugar, and put it into their troughs where they feed, that 
they may be always eating of it; it must be made fresh every day; their 
drink must be only milk in another little trough by their meat-trough; let 
a candle (ftly disposed) stand by them all night for seeing their meat, 
for they will eat all night long. You put the chickens up as soon as they 
can feed of themselves, which will be within a day or two after they are 
hatched, and in twelve days or a fortnight they will be prodigiously fat; 
but after they are come to their height, they presently fall back, so that 
they must be eaten. Their pen or coop must be contrived so, that the hen 
(who must be with them to sit over them) may not go at liberty to eat 
their meat, but be kept to her own diet in a part of their coop that she 
cannot get out of; but the chickens must have liberty to go from her to 
other parts of the coop, where they may eat their own meat, and come in 
again to the hen to be warm'd by her at their pleasure. You must be 
careful to keep their coop very clean.--Or you may scald oatmeal in milk, 
and feed the chickens with it the first week, and rice and sugar the 
second week; in a fortnight they will be prodigiously fat; a little gravel 
will now be necessary sometimes to cleanse their maws and give them an 
appetite.

   Sir Kenelm Digby's Receit to make a luscious Food to fatten Chickens in 
the sweetest and quickest Manner.--Stone (says he) a pound of raisins of 
the sun, and beat them in a mortar to pulp, pour a quart of milk upon 
them, and let them soak so all night; next morning put to them as many 
crums of grated stale bread, which beaten together will bring them to a 
soft paste; work all well together, and lay it in the trough before the 
chickens (which must be about six in a pen, and keep it very clean) and 
let a candle be by them all night. The delight of this meat will make them 
eat continually, and they will be so fat (when they are but of the bigness 
of blackbirds) that they will not be able to stand, but sit down upon 
their bellies to eat.

   Gaddesden Farmers Way to feed Chickens.--Notwithstanding we live on a 
high hill, and on a red clayey soil, yet some of our farmers venture their 
early bred chickens abroad, and let them take their chance in going with 
the hen abroad from the first, even in February or March, though the 
weather is frost or snow; but then we take care to give them a hearty 
food, for enabling them to withstand the cold; and that is whole oatmeal 
and barley mixt together, which will so hearten them, that they will not 
kill themselves with chirping and pain, as those chickens are apt to do, 
that are fed with sloppy meat, such as wetted pollard, &c. And if the 
chickens should fall sick, we give each one sow-bug or wood-louse, and it 
often recovers it; but a hen as well as a chicken is killed by musty corn. 
The chicken is cured by the bug, or both the hen and chicken are sometimes 
cured by rue.--Butter and scouring-sand must be given a little in large 
pills or pellets.--For the same reason, put rue into the water the 
chickens drink, which will keep them in health, and from the cramp.

   To make Capons.--This operation belongs to the country housewife. I 
know a yeoman living near Hempstead in Hertfordshire, whose estate is but 
about fifty pounds a year, that makes (as it is credibly reported) ffteen 
pounds a year by the sale of capons; his wife and daughter cut the young 
dunghill cocks, but I don't suppose they were all bred on his farm, for 
some for this purpose make it their business after harvest-time to go to 
markets for buying up chickens, and between Michaelmas and Allhollantide 
caponize the cocks, when they have got large enough to have stones of such 
a bigness that they may be pulled out, for if they are too little, it 
can't be done; and to know when a cock is fit for it, he should be pretty 
well grown, have a good comb, and be well fleshed, for these signs shew 
they are bigger than those of leaner fowls. To cut them, the cock must lie 
on its back, and held fast, while with a very sharp knife she cuts him 
only skin-deep about an inch in length, between the rump and the end of 
the breast-bone, where the flesh is thinnest; next she makes use of a 
large needle to raise the flesh, for her safer cutting through it to avoid 
the guts, and making a cut here big enough to put her finger in, which she 
thrusts under the guts, and with it rakes or tears out the stone that lies 
nearest to it. This done, she performs the very same operation on the 
other side of the cock's body, and there takes out the other stone; then 
she stitches up the wounds, and lets the fowl go about as at other times, 
till the capon is fatted in a coop, which is commonly done from Christmas 
to Candlemas, and after. Now if the stones are but big enough, as they lie 
to the back, they may be safely taken out with a greased fore-finger, 
without much danger of killing the creature, but when they are too small 
there is danger. This way of caponizing a cock, I have had done at my 
house for my information, by a woman deemed to be one of our best capon 
cutters, else it would have been a difficult matter for me to give a 
description of it; for they that never saw such an operation, and venture 
at it, must expect to kill one or more, before he or she gets master of 
the science. And indeed it is for want of this knowledge that the art of 
caponizing fowls is not so much practised as formerly; but as I have given 
a pretty good account I hope of it, I am of opinion the art will be 
revived, and capons sold in greater plenty than ever.


The Character of the famous Darking Dunghill Fowls.

Kings-Head-Inn at Darking, Jan. 24th, 1747-8.

SIR,

I AM very glad to oblige you with the best account I can give of our 
fowls; they are large, and in general white-leg'd; they that are most 
curious of their breed chuse a cock all white, and the hen of a speckled 
mixture of feathers, but white leg'd, that making a stronger breed than 
both being white: They are all round us very careful of their feed, 
cramming them with fine ground down corn made in rolls and dipped in milk; 
they are received by all people as the finest of poultry that any place 
affords. I am, Sir,

Your most humble Servant,
Benj. Barnsley.


Of the TURKEY

THIS is the largest tame land-fowl we have in England, and by many is 
preferred to others, if they are well fatted. There are two sorts of this 
species, the common Suffolk or Norfolk turkey, and the Blue Virginia sort: 
The first are bred in vast numbers in those two counties, from whence 
London is chiefly supplied with these excellent fowls, as appears by the 
many large droves of them, frequently seen on the roads thither. A turkey, 
sold at Artleborough near Norwich for fourteen-pence, at Stratford near 
Bow in Essex was sold for twenty-pence, so cheap are they in Norfolk; for 
here they have many dry sandy grounds, that produce abundance of turnips, 
barley, &c. which tend much to the growth of turkey poults. The other blue 
sort are of the flying kind, and will settle and roost on trees, yet may 
be kept as tame fowls, but they must have one wing cut, if they are to be 
hinder'd from flying, which is practised by some, and by others not, 
because some gentlemen delight in their flying behaviour; and where many 
of these sort are kept in parks, or other large inclosed grounds, a boy 
may attend them, and by the frequent use of a whistle, to call and invite 
them to a feed of corn now and then at a particular place, it will be a 
great means of naturalizing these turkeys to the part, and keep them from 
straggling too far from home; as it is practised in a nobleman's park, to 
my knowledge. One cock is enough to seven hens.

   Of breeding Turkeys.--As they are of a more tender nature than most 
other tame fowls, they are somewhat difficult to rear, especially in a 
cold country, or on a wettish cold soil; in a warmer one, they may, if 
kept well, be made to tread twice a year; but few do this, but are 
contented with one brood only. They are commonly set with thirteen or 
ffteen eggs. The turkeys are very apt to lay their eggs in hedges, where 
they live near them, and sit abroad: But of this, our right sort of 
country housewives are aware, and take care to set them in a barn, hovel, 
or other large cover'd place; for to stint them of room, is prejudicial to 
this bulky body'd fowl in their hatching and bringing up their young. When 
the young turkeys are strong enough to be admitted abroad, they are liable 
to be hurt by several accidents, by hawks, pole-cats, nettles, &c. before 
they attain an age of security. A nettle will sting them to death, by 
making their head to swell, till they pine and die; therefore many good 
country housewives, to prevent this, where they have nettles grow near 
their houses, will before-hand pull them up.

   To feed young Turkeys.--To a quart of pollard, put a hard egg, and as 
many leaves of wormwood as will make all green, both cut very small, and 
mixed with as much boiling milk as will make all into a soft paste; after 
young turkeys have been fed with bread and milk one or two days, feed them 
with this paste for a week, it will keep them alive. And if you will feed 
them with scalded bran for a month afterwards, they will shift for 
themselves bravely, when otherwise they often die very young. But there 
are several other sorts of food that some give young turkeys, till they 
are big enough to range for a living abroad, as fennel, curds, &c. But in 
dry sandy grounds, they are certainly brought up in the cheapest manner, 
because in this loose earth they easily find and pick up seeds of weeds 
and corn, worms and other insects; and as they in particular love to stock 
their craws with particles of sand, here they have it in plenty. Some 
spring seasons of weather are attended with so much cold and wet as 
destroys many broods of young turkeys, notwithstanding all the care that 
has been made use of.

   Of fattening old Turkeys.--A turkey is not to be fatted like a dunghill 
fowl; if we fat them by crams, we mix barley-meal with pollard and water, 
with which we make pellets or crams, and put as many down the turkey's 
throat as it can well take in, every morning, for three weeks or a month, 
and turn him loose all the rest of the day. This we commonly begin to do 
before Christmas, that the turkeys may be fatted for a market or a friend. 
Barley-meal crams dipt in milk make their flesh appear the whiter.

   A further Account of the Breeding and Feeding of Turkeys.--These fowls 
are bred by some farmers as the most profitable sort; others reject them 
for their troublesome breeding up, and being too great devourers of corn. 
One author observes, that when they have a large range of liberty they 
will feed on herbs, and seeds of herbs, without trouble or charge, except 
in breeding and fattening time, and then they require very careful 
attendance, as they are a tender chilly fowl; that where they have a wood 
or grove near a house, the hen turkey will seek her nest abroad, conceal 
it from the cock, and bring up her brood with more success than the more 
tame; that they seldom fatten before winter be well spent, when they 
forget their lust; that the cold weather gets them a stomach, and the long 
nights afford them much rest; and observes, that the whitish or light 
colour'd turkeys are much better meat than the blacker sort, but withal, 
that they are more tender in their nursing up; when young turkeys are 
hatched, to give them a pepper-corn, one corn with a little milk to each 
turkey poult, as being a great preservative against the cramp, which these 
fowls more than ordinarily are subject to suffer by; that an egg boiled 
till hard, and chopt small with wormwood or cloves, is a good first food 
for warming their bodies and creating an appetite, and so is cheese-curds 
and wormwood. They should be kept from rain while they are very young, in 
shelter till a warm day, and then they may be brought out in the middle of 
it for an hour or two, under a coop, at about a week old; and so on, 
longer and longer, till they can shift for themselves without the hen. It 
is reported, that a turkey may be improved in bulk and goodness of flesh 
by castration; and I think, that if the eggs of the bustard were search'd 
for in April, and set under turkeys, they might be brought up as tame as 
dunghill fowls. But of this most noble fowl the bustard, more is designed 
to be wrote, when I publish my Treasure of new Discoveries in the 
Improvements of Instrumental Husbandry, &c. In short, as the turkey for 
its large body and delicate flesh is kept by many farmers and gentlemen, 
and that the chief art of breeding them lies in their right managing of 
the poults, I have further to add, that if they are timely fed with a 
proper food, and kept under cover for the first four or five weeks from 
rain, slugs, or snails, that are apt to scour and kill them, and a turf of 
grass every day given them, there needs little care in their attendance 
afterwards. And if they are bred near oak or beech trees, their mast in a 
plentiful year will fatten them without any other meat, as is often seen 
by those turkeys bred on Gaddesden-Hill, and fed amongst our many beech 
trees, that are of the largest sort in England. 

Of DUCKS.

THE Profit of keeping Ducks.-- The duck is not fit to be kept where there 
is but little water in ponds or ditches, for if there is but little, they 
mud and spoil it for kitchen uses, and for watering of cattle; but they 
are certainly very profitable where there are good conveniencies for 
keeping them, because they run up in growth very fast for an early market, 
eat up the weeds on waters, devour spawn and young frogs, caterpillars, 
slugs, and snails, &c. return downy feathers, live cheap, and when fatted 
under confinement, with a pure meat, they are dainty food for the nicest 
palates; where there is a river or a springy moor, they will get three 
parts of their living abroad.

   Of the several Sorts of Ducks kept in England.--The common white duck 
is preferred by some, by others the crook-bill duck, some again keep the 
largest of all ducks, the Muscovy sort; but the gentry of late have fell 
into such a good opinion of the Normandy sort, that they are highly 
esteemed for their full body and delicate flesh; they are very great 
devourers of grain, insomuch that if they were wholly to be maintained on 
it, it must cost a person many times more than ducks are sold for at the 
poulterer's shop. A good parcel of ducks will do great service in a turnip 
or rape field, where they are seized by the black caterpillar, and so will 
a turkey or a goose, for all these fowls are very greedy of such insects, 
and accordingly have proved a cure, when no other applications could.

   Of breeding Ducks.--One drake will serve for near twenty ducks. In the 
hardest weather, one quart of barley will be sufficient to feed ten or 
twelve ducks one day; however, the better they are fed the more eggs 
they'll lay, and so fed they'll lay abundance at intervals of time, 
beginning after moulting time about Allhollantide or about Christmas. 
Those who have no duck eggs of their own seek out to buy some, for having 
them in readiness to set the first broody dunghill hen, that they may have 
the earliest ducklings to market, for when they are very early sold, they 
may fetch eighteen pence apiece, in February; but then such an early brood 
must be kept in a house, unless the weather is very mild indeed; and for 
their first meat, it should be a very hearty sort, made with bread and 
milk, and pollard mixt together; so that in breeding ducks, the dunghill 
hen, which commonly sits first, and keeps house better than ducks, becomes 
very serviceable, and thus there is the greater opportunity to enjoy a 
brood of ducks both by the hen and the duck's sitting, and of bringing up 
the more young ones. On this account many farmers sell their duck eggs to 
a good advantage. Our Vale farmers wives duly observe to dip the bills or 
beaks of the ducklings as soon as they are hatch'd in milk, and where they 
make cheese to give them curd. 

Of GEESE.

SORTS of Geese.--There are several sorts of English tame geese, some 
smaller bodied than others, but the largest and finest sort that I ever 
saw was at Sir Jeremy Sambrook's, at his seat near Northaw Common; but 
that truly honourable and very worthy gentleman, Sir John Rawdon, shewed 
me, at his seat near Brentwood, Essex (when I carried to him fourteen 
young tame pheasants) a breed between the English and Portugal sort, which 
he prefer'd for their good qualities.

   Geese sitting and hatching.--This business comes in particular under 
the country housewife's inspection, and for managing it to profit, she 
should feed her geese well betimes, even from Christmas, that they may lay 
early eggs, and enough of them for setting her geese in February or March 
at farthest, and therefore some oats ought to be given them or other corn, 
or wetted bran or pollard, besides what food they get abroad; coleworts 
raw or scalded, or turneps boiled and bran mix'd, or raw carrots chopt 
small, or guts and garbage will very much contribute to their laying and 
sitting betimes, that their goslings or green geese may come to an early 
market for fetching the best price; feed them in the out-house they are to 
lay and sit in, for naturalizing them to the place; provide them wheat or 
other straw, and make them a nest with it as far off the company of other 
geese as conveniently can be, and as a goose sits about a month let her 
have water and gravel constantly by her, and meat in due time; set her on 
her own eggs, for it is thought by some that her knowledge extends as far 
as this, to approve of, and sit better on her own than those of other 
geese. And that if a dunghill large hen is broody first, it is profitable 
to set her with five or six goose eggs; but this is very seldom done, 
because a goose well fed will lay and sit early enough, and cover thirteen 
or ffteen eggs. The goose having hatch'd, if the weather is severely cold 
or wet, she and her brood should be kept in till the goslings get older 
and heartier, by giving them at first bread, bran, pollard, yetted barley, 
or other corn scalded in milk, with chopt clivers, lettice, coleworts, or 
turnips boiled to a mash, with bran or pollard mixt with them, or minced 
raw carrots amongst it, till after a week or more that they can eat buck-
wheat, barley, oats, or other raw corn, and shift for themselves. Likewise 
be sure to put fennel in all their water. Thus the goslings may be 
prevented having the cramp or other illness, which, for want of a careful 
and right management at first, sometimes kills them; and for their greater 
security, let them go and be kept out a little at a time, till they are 
able to endure the weather, and preserve them from eating musty corn, from 
the kite, from the pole-cat, and Baltick rat, from hemlock, henbane, and 
other poisonous herbs by land, and from the pike or large jacks in water, 
for that all these are enemies to young ducks and goslings.

   The Loss and Profit of keeping Geese.--They are not fit to be kept 
where there is a scarcity of water, but only where there is much pond 
water, or near a river, or on a common. Here geese may pay better than any 
other tame fowl; because they are great devourers (hog like) of meat, and 
bite grass rather closer to the ground than a sheep, and therefore their 
keeping is disallowed of on many commons; but where they have plenty of 
water, grass, and weeds, they'll live and thrive with very little expence 
all the year, except in feeding time for laying eggs, in sitting time, and 
in bringing up their young. Then it is that some geese-owners buy oats or 
other meat, as those do who live on Box-Moor near Hempstead, to whom I 
have sold oats for this purpose; but for the rest of the year, the old 
geese are very little expensive. A goose, it is said, may live forty or 
fifty years, as has been proved; and although she is very old when she 
comes fat out of the stubbles, yet her body being furnished on a sudden 
with new flesh, she may eat to satisfaction: Which leads me to observe, 
that notwithstanding it is the custom of many farmers in Hertfordshire and 
elsewhere, to fatten geese chiefly in stubbles, yet it is the custom of 
many others to sell them lean, as may every year be seen by the great 
droves of such geese travelling towards London, from Flag-hundred near 
Yarmouth, in Norfolk. In one drove there were fourteen hundred sold at 
Stratford in Essex, for twenty-pence a piece, to fatten for the London 
poulterers. If geese are fatted in stubbles, when they are brought home 
every night, they should have some pollard or bran mixt with skim milk, 
broth, or water, or corn soaked and given them in water; but in a morning 
they should eat nothing before they are drove to the field, because 
they'll search for their meat with the greater diligence. Again, in case 
geese are to be fatted altogether in a house, that house is best for this 
purpose that has the least light, and is farthest off the noise of other 
geese. There are several sorts of meat to fatten them with, as French 
wheat just broke at the mill and given in water, or the flower of it made 
into a pap or paste is a great fattener; so is ground malt mixt with 
pollard and given them in water, or barley-meal wetted into a thin paste; 
but let the meat be what it will, they must always have a pan of water by 
them, wherein is some gravel or sand; and if with any of these meats, some 
coleworts, lettice, or clivers are given besides, it will increase their 
appetite, and cause them to fatten apace, in a fortnight or three weeks 
time; for goslings especially are such extream lovers of lettice and 
coleworts, that they'll almost fatten upon them alone, and so they will on 
carrots cut small, or on turneps boiled to a mash and mixt with pollard, 
which is the cheapest meat they can be fatted with. A goose is easier 
brought up than a turkey, for a turkey, when as big as a pigeon, may be 
stung to death by a nettle.

   Eighteen Goslings killed and carried away in one Night's Time by a 
Polecat.--A Man who lives on Box-Moor, near Hempstead, had eighteen 
goslings carried away in one night; and believing they were carried away 
by a polecat, diligently searched amongst the hedges to find his hole, but 
finding none, they proceeded to search about a bay of hay in a barn, and 
perceiving a hole, they cut down into it, and there found a polecat lying 
in the midst of it, with most of the dead goslings, for which they had 
only the satisfaction of killing him.

Of SWANS.

THE Pleasure and Profit of keeping Swans.--Swans are stately beautiful 
birds, and are said to be a very proud, but chaste fowl; and are so 
sensible of affronts, that I have often seen a cock swan scare both women 
and children in wing-running after them. They are chiefly kept by 
gentlemen, who regard them more for fancy than profit; not but they will 
pay indifferently well, if kept under a right management in large ponds or 
in a river. Nor will they leave the place if pinion'd, but keep strictly 
to it, even if it be only a pond of no great compass, as has been seen in 
Ashridge-Park, for some years, in the time of Scroop the late Duke of 
Bridgewater; but if they go unpinion'd, they are apt to take flights, tho' 
they seldom entirely forsake their first habitation. They are a very hardy 
bird, and are not devourers of fish to any great damage, for they never 
dive deep, hardly ever farther than their necks will reach, so that they 
can only take a few of the smallest fish. And as to the expence of their 
maintainance, what they get in and about the water, and the grass that 
grows on the land contiguous to the pond or river, with a few oats now and 
then, will suffice, except in a hard frost, when they are deprived of the 
benefit of water; then, indeed, they must have a greater allowance of 
oats. The young swans, called cignets, if fatted, are a dainty dish, and 
eat excellently well in a pye, provided they have not exceeded two years 
of age. Their long neck, broad feet, and broad bill, are necessary; their 
neck to reach, and their broad mouth to take up much slime at once, in 
order to take up worms and other insects from the bottom of ponds; the 
upper part of their bill is pierced, in order to discharge the water.

   Of Breeding Swans.--Swans make their nest with flags or rushes, which 
they build on the water, amongst flags, to a very great bulk; here they 
generally lay their eggs, in March, to the number of four, five, or six, 
and then sit on them for seven or eight weeks before they hatch; in which 
time, as their nest is always pretty near the shoar, they must have oats 
given them. When they have hatch'd, the young swans have nothing given 
them besides what the old swan provides, which are flies, worms, or other 
insects, weeds and grass, carrying them now and then on her back, and so 
will the cock swan, and provide his share for them; but after three weeks 
age, the cignets will eat oats, which are placed in a trough fix'd in the 
water about two foot from the land, to which both old and young have 
always free access; and now it is that the cock swan is most furious at 
spectators, as being very jealous of his mate, and fond of her brood. 
Where there is not good room in a pond for their large nest, or 
conveniency to make one with flags or rushes, grass, straw, and such like 
stuff must be laid near the edge of the water, on the land, and the swan 
will, if not much disturbed, lay her eggs in a nest she builds there.

   How to fatten Swans.--To fatten these large water fowls, they must not 
be totally deprived of water, and therefore for accommodating them in the 
most natural manner, stakes must be drove into the ground round a place in 
the water, by the shore-side, and on part of the contiguous land; so that 
one half must be land and the other half water, that is to be thus 
inclosed for about half a pole square, that the swans may have liberty 
allowed them enough to be on either. Here the cignets, or old swans that 
are to be fatted, must be confined to feed on oats, and nothing else, and 
if well supplied with them, they will fatten in three weeks or a month at 
farthest. Swans are of a dunnish colour for the first year; but before the 
second is over, they will be perfectly white. Then the cock may be partly 
known from the hen, by the larger comb, neck, and legs. About Michaelmas 
time they should be pinion'd, and for doing it safely a person should have 
some fore-hand knowledge of it, and not venture at random, lest he kill 
them by being an ignorant operator, as one I know did, who was thus the 
death of four young swans out of six; therefore observe the following 
method.

   Pinioning a Swan.--Mr. Bradley, in his Farmer's Monthly Director, page 
132. (sold by Mr. Brown, at the Black-Swan, without Temple-Bar, London) 
says, That the feathers must be pick'd clean round the first joint of one 
wing, then take a strong pack-thread, and knit hard enough round the 
place, a little below the joint, to stop the bleeding, when the pinion is 
cut off with a very sharp knife. For doing this, the month of September is 
a good time.

Of EGGS.

HOW to preserve Eggs sound.--Dr. Godfrey in his book says, That eggs have 
been laid under a running water, and after two years lying in the same 
have been found perfectly sound for eating, and breeding of chickens. He 
also further says, that if eggs are covered with a proper varnish they 
will hold sound a year, as has been proved by putting them under a hen 
that produced chickens; for by these means the air is kept from entering 
their shells, and so are preserved from rottenness.

   A second Way to preserve Eggs sound.--This is done by the art of 
packing them in a wicker-basket, hamper, or cask, for if you place their 
large ends downwards, they will keep sound two or three months. The reason 
for this is, when you place them the reverse way, the air has a greater 
contact with the wind-bladder in the large end of the egg, so as to waste 
and exhaust it much the sooner thro' the pores of the shell, for as this 
wind-bladder (which supports and helps to keep the yolk from sinking and 
running amongst the white) becomes more or less damaged, so will the egg 
be in proportion.

   A third Way.--When you pack eggs for carriage or keeping some time, 
always set their broad ends downwards, and between every layer of them put 
straw, and keep them out of the power of cold air, that it may not freeze 
them; therefore reserve the hamper, basket, or cask, in a warm room in 
winter, and in summer in a cellar. The broad ends of the eggs, which are 
porous, have a thick skin, which the egg feeds upon while it lies in this 
posture; but when the eggs lie long ways, there is little else but skin, 
and when that is fed on, and eat up by the rest of the egg, the egg begins 
to rot. It is also observable, that the chick's bill lies next the bottom, 
and here through the little holes it fetches its breath. Now if these 
little holes lie uppermost, the air has the more power to enter and spoil 
the egg.

   A fourth Way.--A farmer's wife, to save her eggs in a cheap time 
against a dear one, used to put them on wire or other sieves, or on other 
bottoms, and by laying them thus, she turned the eggs once every week, 
from August till towards Christmas, in imitation of the common higlers 
way, who, when they meet with a disappointment of sale, turn their pack'd-
up eggs in a hamper bottom upwards, and by so doing once a week, they will 
keep sound four or five weeks.

   Rotten Eggs sold knowingly.--It is too often practised by some farmers 
wives, to save their eggs from harvest-time to sell near Christmas, and 
though many be rotten, yet they will sell them as sound ones if they can, 
though they know them to be rotten. Therefore,

   To know rotten Eggs.--When they are rotten, on holding them against a 
fire, candle, or the sun, they appear of a dirty or blackish colour.

   Hertfordshire Eggs.--We generally are so careful of sending clean eggs 
to London, that when we find any of them sully'd, we put them for a minute 
in warm water, and rub them with scouring sand; then lay them on a cloth, 
and they presently dry.



The DAIRY.

THE Benefits of making use of a brass Skimming-dish.--In my way home from 
Sussex , on the 15th day of June, 1749, I rode along with a grazier, that 
lives near Towcester in Northamptonshire, who informed me he had lost 
sixty horned beasts by the reigning murrain distemper; nine of which 
number died this last spring. He says, he received eighty pounds from the 
King for forty of them; that he now keeps forty cows for carrying on a 
butter dairy, and sells his butter all the year, at a London market, for 
seven-pence a pound in winter, and six-pence in summer. He says, there is 
sold at some shops a brass skimmer for milk, about the bigness of a common 
wooden skimming-dish; this, he says, takes the cream away right, because 
it lets the milk through its little holes, and retains the cream. But he 
says it must be done exceeding quick, by putting the cream into a 
porringer or pan, which is to be held by the other hand, lest the cream 
pass also through the holes. This, says he, is an improvement; for by 
discharging the milk from the cream, the butter will keep sweet the 
longer, be better tasted and firmer, milk being weaker than cream. Thus 
the purest cream may be gathered for making the very best of butter, far 
exceeding the old common way of blowing off the cream in the skimming-dish 
with the mouth, which does it less cleanly, and less free of the milk. 
But, say some, the more milk the more butter; true, but then that butter 
is so much the worse, as there is milk mixt with the cream. This also 
proves the setting of milk over embers for scalding it, and thereby 
raising a clouted cream, to be much more profitable than to wait the 
taking cream off cold milk, because the clouted cream is easily taken neat 
and intirely off the milk, without a mixture of it, at once.

   The Nature of what the Dairymen call Second-butter, by which may be 
discovered how ignorant Persons are imposed on that buy Butter.--This 
great dairyman says, That to make the first and best butter, his wife 
skims every 12 hours in summer, and forbears to do the same but a little 
longer in winter, and thus skims twice for making this prime, best butter: 
And for making a second butter, she likewise generally skims the same milk 
twice at every 12 hours end. By this method, he says, his wife gets cream 
enough to make a dozen pounds of this second butter, after 12 or 13 dozen 
pounds are made of the first butter from the same milk. Now this second or 
back butter is worth but very little more than half the value of the first 
prime butter: Yet our London butter-woman-seller sells it all alike, for 
one and the same price, either to ignorant buyers, or to those who are 
more knowing, who, by being in her books, dare not dispute the badness of 
this butter. And that for informing this butter-seller, he tells me, that 
leaves, or some other mark is laid to this second butter, for preventing a 
mistake, lest unwarily she sells the worst butter for the best to her best 
customers.--If he skims so often in summer, he must have a very cold dairy-
cellar indeed, for these several skimmings are not in common practice.

   Whey Butter.--He tells me they can skim their whey but once at 12 hours 
end. This whey-cream, he says, makes worse butter than the skim-milk 
second or back butter, for it will not keep, and presently eats rankish. I 
must confess that the square, leaden, milk-coolers in a cellar will very 
much contribute to the keeping of milk sweet a long time, which he tells 
me that he uses altogether, else I cannot understand how he can skim so 
often, and yet get such sweet butter as to hold good in summer time to 
London, after it has been drawn in a waggon about fifty miles.

   How in the Management of a Vale Great Dairy they get their Fewel, and 
keep their Cows from having the red Water, or pissing of Blood.--In 
Buckingham, Bedford, and Northampton shires there are many great cheese 
and butter dairies carry'd on, without so much as an acre of plow'd 
ground, who have only a dwelling-house and one or two calf-houses 
belonging to them. In such a grasing farm they perhaps keep forty, fifty, 
or sixty cows, and always milk them abroad summer and winter, and if snows 
fall deep, they fodder, and sit on a stool in the snow to milk. And when a 
calf falls, it is housed, and the cow kept in a night or two, but they 
quickly sell off the calf for employing the milk to make butter or cheese. 
Here many have few or no hedges, but part their grounds by rails, banks, 
or ditches, which constrains them to get cow-dung, and cut (if there be 
any) scrubbed black-thorn or gorze, for two reasons, one is for fewel 
against winter, the other is to prevent their cows cropping the young 
shoots of these vegetables; for if they are let to grow any thing long, 
they are apt to cause cows to piss bloody water. Fewel being thus scarce, 
they go with a cart or wheel-barrow, and take up cow-dung soft or hard, 
and continue doing this at times all the summer, for getting good store of 
it against a long winter, and for relieving the ground from a cover of it; 
for if cow-dung is let alone, it will grow hard, and kill the grass 
underneath it; for this dung, though very soft at first, will harden to 
that degree, as not to be washed away by rains for a year or more. Now the 
value of this cow-dung does not end here, for after it is burnt, by way of 
kitchen-fewel, the ashes of it are excellent to dress their grasing 
grounds, and therefore the poor people sell them to the grasing farmers 
for a crown a cart-load.--If your cow should piss bloody water; you may 
give the following medicine:

   To stop bloody Water piss'd by a Cow.--Take pennygrass, scabious, and 
camomile, a little of each, a few cloves bruised, or some cinnamon; boil 
these in a quart of old verjuice; give a pint of this warm to a cow 
fasting out of a horn; if it does not answer at first, renew it three or 
four mornings.--But for four other receits to cure this malady, see my 
Modern Husbandman, sold by Mr. Thomas Osborne, in Gray's-Inn, London.

   The good and bad Properties of Cows.--A book entitled The Country 
Housewife, without an account in it of the advantages that cows may yield, 
and how such advantages may be acquired, would, in my opinion, render me a 
preposterous author, and be a tacit declaration I was never owner of a 
cow; or if I was, that I knew not how to write of her qualities, which is 
perfectly necessary in the work I have here undertaken; for cows are 
certainly the most useful beasts belonging to a country-house, because at 
gentlemen's country-houses and at farms, their produce of milk, cream, 
butter, cheese, and the management of them, generally belongs to and comes 
under the woman's province; wherefore their qualities ought to be 
enumerated. Yet so necessary as this is, many of them have slipt the 
notice of most authors; therefore as I am an owner of cows, and find them 
pay me well, by their enabling me to make butter or cheese, or for 
suckling calves for the butcher, especially in the summer vacation time, 
while my crops of corn, grass, fruit, and wood are growing, I have to say 
that that cow is a very valuable one that gives 4 gallons of milk in one 
day, in her prosperity; though I have heard of a cow, thought to be worth 
ten pounds, that gave five gallons a day, in the months of May or June, on 
a full bite of grass, and continued giving milk till near her calving (but 
I say, it is a good cow that gives three gallons a day) while some others 
go dry two or three months: She was a healthful one, hardy, gentle, and 
easy milked. Such a cow as this deserves to have her breed increased; for 
where one cow merits this character, there are twenty that do not. I have 
one cow, and she is of the Holderness breed, that would give milk almost 
to her calving; but this no prudent farmer will suffer, because it would 
surely damage himself and her; for it is well known to us cow-keepers, 
that although it is a common braggadocio saying with some sellers of cows, 
that she'll give milk till she calves, yet I am sure, if this is allowed, 
it will not only reduce the cow's flesh and make her lean, but cause her 
to bring a very small calf. However, I knew a farmer at Eaton in 
Bedfordshire, that was perswaded, by the ignorant sort, a cow would not be 
the worse if she milked within a week or fortnight of her time, and he 
took their advice; the consquence [sic: consequence] of which was, it sunk 
the cow's flesh, caused her to bring a very small calf, and made her give 
a very little parcel of milk for some time after: Whereas had the same cow 
been dried a month or better before her calving, she might very probably 
have kept herself in good flesh, brought forth a large calf almost half 
fat, and have given a large quantity of milk besides. This is now so well 
known among judicious experienced dairy farmers, that there are few or 
none but what observe to dry their cows a month, before calving, if they 
don't dry of themselves; as many do, for there are some sort of cows, 
especially the red sort, that give the most milk for a time, and then 
they'll dry of themselves within two or three months of their calving. And 
it is this sort therefore that bring the larger and fattest calves, and 
give the greatest quantity of milk, till they thus dry of themselves: For 
the same reasons, when a cow is wanting of this quality by nature, the 
drying of her in due time should be forced; a case contrary to the notion 
of a late famous author, who, in his General Treatise on Husbandry, has 
these words--"Nor can I find any reason, why the black cattle, which are 
thus constantly in milk should not bring a well-grown calf; for seeing how 
moderately they dispense their milk at each meal, we may reasonable infer, 
that they give only what nature allots them to spare from their 
nourishment, and rather seems to be a necessary discharge of juices than 
any inconvenience, either to the cow, or the calf she is pregnant with. 
For in such a case, the calf will naturally draw to itself from the mother 
what juices are necessary for its support, and if it required more than 
the cow could conveniently furnish, the cow must then necessarily 
languish, and as surely lose her milk, so that while we find milk in a 
cow, we cannot reasonably suppose, that either the cow or calf want 
nourishment." Thus far this author.--Next, I have further to observe, that 
to have a right sort of cow, either of the red or black sort, she should 
be thin-skin'd, taper-headed, slender-neck'd, low-leg'd, well-shoulder'd, 
smallish teats, with a round thin-leather'd bag, in refusal of those cows 
that are furnish'd with parts of a different make and shape.

   How to milk an unlucky Cow and prevent her Mischief.--As insignificant 
an article as this at first may seem to appear, I am sure there are 
thousands that stand in need of its information. In Cheshire and many 
other places the milk-maid wears a black hat, partly because she is 
obliged to push and hold her head hard against the cow's flank, to 
discourage her from kicking the pail of milk down, for such pressure 
somewhat diverts the motion, because as the maid pushes her head hard 
against the cow, the cow naturally leans her body hard against the maid's 
head, by which she can feel the cow's intent to strike, and so take away 
her pail in time; yet I call this only discouraging, for it will not 
always prevent it, for some cows will kick to that degree, that they must 
have their legs fetter'd, by tying them above the hind middle joints. 
Others again are so unlucky, that to prevent the damage of their kicking, 
they must be milked through a hurdle. Of this sort are many of the 
Holderness breed, that have large bodies, short horns, taper-headed and 
necked, thin-skin'd, and give a great deal of milk, but are very apt to 
kick, break through hedges, and leap over gates and stiles. And when they 
are so very mischievous, as some of them are with both head and heels, 
they are better parted from than kept; if kept, the milk that is got from 
them must be by only milking a single teat or dug at a time into a pint 
wooden or earthen dish or bowl, and that in such danger, as makes it 
perhaps not worth while to keep her. But this is not all the mischief that 
belongs to an unlucky cow, for many of these kickers are very apt and 
prone to buck other cows, spoil their bag (as I have known an instance of) 
and sometimes the calf in the cow's belly; for which last reasons, all 
cows should have wooden tips fastened to the end of their horns, to 
prevent the great danger that weak and underline cows are liable to suffer 
by those we call master cows; for woeful experience has given us many 
deplorable cases of mischief done by cows horns to men, women, children, 
and beasts. Therefore I have always every one of my cows horns thus 
served, whether they be of the unlucky or the gentle sort; for although a 
cow may be gentle at other times, yet when she has a calf by her, there is 
danger in feeding, milking, and suckling her. The next thing I have to 
advance is, that if the maid milk cross-teated, that is to say, if she 
milks a backward dug of the further side with the forward dug of the 
hither side, it is thought the cow is not so prone to kick, as if milked 
by the next two side dugs, but that she'll give her milk down the freer 
for it. And indeed, this cross-milking is both easier for the cow and the 
milker. Again, it is the necessitous case of many farmers to feed their 
cows at a considerable distance from the house, in summer-time especially, 
which travel brings a beast under great heat and pain, with their full 
bags of milk; therefore cross-teat-milking is here a beneficial service, 
because it discharges the milk from both sides the bag in equal 
quantities, and thereby cools, eases, and refreshes the cow at once. It is 
likewise to be observed as a material point in milking of cows, and which 
is the custom of some dairies, that after all the cows are milked, the 
milker begins again to milk, or what we call drip that cow which was first 
begun with, and so on, dripping every one of the rest. One intent of which 
is to prevent milk being left in the bag; for some of the idle sort of 
milkers are frequently guilty of this, and then it greatly damages the 
beast, and prejudices its owner, by lessening the after quantities of 
milk, and drying the cow the sooner. A second intention is, that by thus 
dripping or milking a cow over again, that cow which held up some of her 
milk the first time, may give it all down at the second milking. A third 
intention is, that by this dripping of cows, there will be got what we 
call stroakings, which being little inferior to cream may be added to it 
and increase its quantity. But for performing this with judgment, it is 
hardly worth while to do it, where there are but few cows kept, and where 
there are many there should be more hands than ordinary to dispatch the 
dripping, else the cows may be obliged to stay too long from feeding, and 
their bags or udders replenished with new milk, to the lessening of the 
next meal. Again I have to observe, that a slow milker damages a cow, by 
lessening her milk; when one that milks briskly, and is used to milk her, 
preserves her milk in good order. And for her longer continuance in plenty 
of milk, that cow that calves in April or May stands the best chance for 
it, because the first spring of grass meets her; and although some of the 
small Welsh cows will live on a shorter bite of grass, and are hardier 
than the larger sort, yet their carcases are of the less value to fatten. 
Therefore where there is meat enough for a large beast, I am of opinion, 
they'll pay more than a smaller one, because when they go guest and have 
done milking, and are fatted for the butcher, their price will be large 
accordingly, as I have proved, by fattening my own cows abroad and at home.

   The kicking Cow.--There are many cows brought under very ill behaviour, 
by means of a young ignorant milker, who, because the cow don't just 
please her, rashly strikes or scolds at her, when a gentle behaviour would 
incite the same in a beast, witness what some cows are brought to by the 
like. I have seen more than one cow led by a string in the hand of a boy 
or girl, for the better confining the cow to feed on common field ground 
between corn lands; and it may be depended on as a true maxim, that if a 
cow can't be broke of her ill tricks by fair means, it can never be done 
by foul.

   How to hinder a Cow from holding up her Milk.--For this there have been 
several devices made use of: As first to twist a rope hard about the cow's 
body while she is milking: Secondly, to fling cold water over the loins, 
and then directly to milk her: But this should be done for several days: 
Or if the cow is to be suckled, milk her first, and let the calf draw away 
the rest, for a cow will (or is forced to) give it a calf, when she will 
not to a milker.--Or to make her less regard holding up her milk, let her 
have hay or other meat before her while she is milking.

   The Life of a Cow saved by the Care of a Servant-Maid.--It was the maid-
servant of a very small farmer, who kept but one cow in all (but of so 
kind a breed as to give milk enough to supply his house, and some to sell 
besides.) And thus this cow became part of the poor man's bread. Now it 
happened that as the farmer had but little ground, and that under crops of 
grain, he was necessitated to turn this his cow into the high-ways, to 
pick up and get a living as well as she could, without any mistrust of her 
doing ill by eating what she could find; but so it was, that in being thus 
sharp set to get a living she was obliged to eat nettles, and by custom 
she came to love and eat them so greedily, that at last she hoved and 
swell'd with them, as if she had eaten clover-grass. This being perceived 
by the maid-servant (for no body was at home but her) she in all haste 
drove the cow towards the farrier's shop, which was about half a mile off, 
and in driving her she dropt down by the way, and became such a sight as 
brought the neighbours about her; some of whom advised the maid to send in 
all haste for some gin and pepper. And by giving her a penny-worth of 
pepper in half a pint of gin, the cow immediately discharged abundance of 
wind (which was the cause of the malady) and perfectly recover'd on the 
eleventh day of June, when the nettles were in their greatest rankness of 
sap; but for an antidote against such destructive accidents, our country 
housewife should endeavour to have the following remedy given to each cow 
at its first turning into clover, rapes, turneps, or into any other 
dangerous feeding.

   Of Antidotes for preventing the hoving or swelling of Cows while they 
Feed on Clover, Rapes, Turneps, &c.--Clover, rapes, and turnep-tops, are 
accounted the three worst sorts of vegetables for causing cows to hove, 
swell, and die: Therefore it is of great importance to endeavour a 
security against their fatal effects, and how to do it deserves the notice 
of all such whose beasts are liable to these accidents. In some vales 
indeed, where they sow no clover, rapes, or turneps, they are in no danger 
of this fatal malady: But in chiltern countries where they are, none ought 
to be without the knowledge of the following ingredients: When a cow first 
goes into clover, rapes, or turneps, &c. let one man hold her by the horn, 
while another takes hold of her tongue, and thrust down her throat an egg-
shell full of tar, then let her go.--Or you may cut off the head, tail, 
and fins of a red-herring, and dip it in tar for giving it as before.--Or 
you may give the cow a belly full of good hay just before she goes into 
clover, and if she is kept in every night on hay, and turned out every 
morning, it will be a greater security.--A tar and hay preparation is what 
I generally every year observe to make use of, when I put my cows to feed 
on any of these hoving vegetables, lest I suffer as an old farmer did, who 
being necessitated to turn his cow to grass, put them into a field of 
clover on the 31st of March, 1740, and lost the best of them, for she 
quickly swelled, hoved, and died after being turned into it; and yet this 
old farmer is justly accounted an acute one as any is in our parts for his 
management in the old way of farming, but as to any new way he is averse 
to it, because he can't give credit to what his forefathers never knew nor 
practised: But this he might have known, that clover, though short at its 
first bite, is full of sap (as this was) and therefore very windy, and the 
more apt to swell a beast, as I have found by many trials.

   How a Cow's Life was saved that was hoved in Clover, when internal 
Remedies failed, shewn by a Case of my Neighbour's Cow.--A Cow that was 
hoved and swelled in feeding on clover-grass fell down and must have died, 
had not an accidental stander-by stabbed her with his pointed pocket-
knife; for he had learned that such a method was the lest thing that could 
be done to a hove cow past any other remedy, and that it was safe stabbing 
her in the paunch clear of her kidneys, as it proved by this fact; for as 
soon as he had stabbed her, out came dung and wind in a very violent 
manner. Upon which they directly tarred the wound, and cover'd it with a 
plaister of common pitch, to the entire curing of her.

   The best Remedy perhaps that ever was found out for curing Cows of the 
Murrain; or a famous Cure made on a Butcher's Cow, that was seized with 
the Murrain Distemper at Little-Gaddesden.--On the 28th of November 1746, 
Mr. Edward Thorne, a butcher at Little-Gaddesden, bought two fat cows to 
kill (for about this time they were very cheap, because many beasts were 
sold in apprehension that the fatal malady would seize and kill them, 
which at this time raged in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and in some 
other adjacent counties) but finding them in calf, he resolved to keep 
them for milch cows, and they went on very well till the 5th of December 
following, when one of them fell amiss, seized with the murrain or plague, 
which made her grate her teeth, run at the eyes, hang down her head, 
scour, and would not eat: Upon this the butcher first blooded her, then 
clapt four rowels in her, one in each buttock, the others on each side her 
neck, made with horse-hair and tow twisted together, with horse 
turpentine. Then he made a drink with half a pint of gin, a pint of ale, 
about an egg-shell full of fine wood soot, one ounce of the flower of 
mustard-seed, and two eggs mash'd with their shells. This drink he gave 
her out of a horn, and at every two hours end some thin malt mash out of a 
horn, with a very thin malt mash standing before her, that she might drink 
of the liquor of it, for he gave her no water, and it answered the intent; 
for in about eight and forty hours time, this drink and one more knit her, 
by altering her scouring, and caused her to dung thickish, and in two days 
time more she kick'd up her heels and was perfectly well: And what was 
very surprising, the other cow that was kept in the same yard all the 
while was not infected, for the butcher was afraid to take the well one 
away, lest he should give offence to his neighbours by endangering their 
cows.--To account for this success, the butcher is of opinion, that the 
mustard and the other hot ingredients threw out the distemper, by sweating 
the beast, and told me he came by this receit accidentally as he bought 
cattle of a Leicestershire grazier, who declared to him, that this same 
medicine had saved of one man's cow's twenty out of two and twenty that 
were seized with the murrain distemper. The parts where the rowels are 
fixt will swell much, but on their running the swelling will sink and draw 
the fever out of the cow's head.--And it is my humble opinion, that there 
was never a better remedy ever found out than this, for the cure of the 
murrain, because here are several operations performed on the cow's body 
at once, both inwardly and outwardly, which gives her two chances for her 
life; if the rowels run, we say there is no great danger of the cow's 
doing otherwise than well.

   How to prevent the Murrain Distemper spreading amongst Cows.--The 
following has been used with great success in several places where the 
distemper among the horned cattle has raged very violently, and comes 
recommended by a very able physician.--Take tar and flower of brimstone, 
of each half a pound, oil of turpentine four ounces, assafœtida two drams: 
Mix these well together, and with a painter's brush do the nose and muzzle 
of the cow night and morning.