Page:Cæsarea; or, A Discourse of the Island of Jersey.djvu/14

 gñally applyed themselves to the keeping of bees, which thriued there exccedingly, & made a more excellent sort of hony, then is scene ordinarily; which since by ye multiplying of apple-trees hath by degrees ben neglected; & those sorts of drinke left off vtterly. As likewise that kind of sheep whereof the females had most times foure homes, & the rams oft-times six, that is three of each side, whereof two made a circle towards the nose, two others another circle back-wards towards the eares, & two stood upright betweene them, which kind was of a small size, is allmost abolished, by the substitution of a larger kind, like those in Salisbury plaine, brought, I suppose, out of England. Likewise in lieu of Vittoe & boshet ye auncient drinke Cydar is at present alltogether in vse: wee have likewise made vse of perry heretofore, before Cydar was soe plentifull as it is nowe, but at present it is soe little regarded that labourers & servants will hardly drinke of it: for Cydar is growne so plentifull; that it serues not onely for common vse euen to excesse; but much of it might be spared for transportation. For of late times people finding the proffitt arising from Improvement of ground by orchards to be farre aboue that which they had afore by Tillage, they have soe vniuersally applyed themselves to make fences for ye preservacon of theire Apple-trees that the whole Island was in danger of becoming, at last, a continued orchard, if care had not ben taken to put a stopp to that vnlimited inclinatiô of ye Inhabitants. By which meanes husbandry is nowe soe decay'd that whereas formerly there grewe more corne in ye Island, then was sufficient for its prouision, & that much of it was transported abroad, nowe on ye contrary, it must be beholding to Britany & other places beyond sea, for one half, at least, of what is spent there. For besides the increase of Apples, the people, who were wont to attend Tillage, a painefull occupation, and sowing of hemp & flaxc for ye making of linnen cloth, finding nowe by experience more ease in knitting of stockings & wastcots, haue soe generally, men women & children, giuen themselves that waye, that none will assist husbandmen, but with repugnancy, & at such rates, as cannot consist with that moderate price at which foraigne