Of increasing HoufnoU'stuffe*

thet In very cold places, wiihouc any other art at all besides the coldness of theplace. In rooms that sre made under the ground, and very cold, wherethefecom-ech neither heat nor any Southerly winde, but that they are continually cold anddry, almost every thing may be preserved without putrefaction. Inacertain mo-nastery that is upon the Hill Parrhenius, neer unto Naples, I saw the carcases ofmen kept whole and found for many years rogecher. The Hill is covered over withsnow almost continually J and in the tops of the Mountains, where the snow liesin ditches and pits, conveyed thither of purpose to keep it, look what Pears, andCervices, and Apples, and wilde Chest-nuts have been gathered op by chance toge-ther with the snow , and put into the same pits ; after the space of a year that thesnow was consumed away, we have there found the same fruits, so moist, and fresh,and goodly to the eye, as if they had been but then pluckt off from their Trees.To conclude, there is nothing better and more available for the preservation ofany thing , then is the dryness and the coldness of such places as they are laid upin, to be kept.

Chap. IV.

Whatspecial time there must he chosenfor thegathering of such frutts } At you mean to I*}

up tnstore for a great while after ,

He principal matter which I would have to be observed in this cafe,'is the choo*

L sing of your time wherein to gather all such fruits as you would lay up in store,that they might last long. For if we desire todes;at that heat and moisture whichtrill mar out fruit, and cause it to putrifie, we cannot take any better course againstthem, then by making choice of such a time to gather oar fruits in, as when thoseplanets and stars, which are the principal Authors of that heat & moisture, are them-selves become cold and dry , or at the least not hor and moist in any high degree.The Moon when-she is in the training, is cold and dry: If there be any fruits ga-thered when the Moon aboundeth with heat and moisture, the very fame qualitieswill alto the fruit abound withal, and so they will very soon beputrified, as everyman of any wit will easily judge : and therefore all those that have written of Hus-bandry, with one consent do give it for a precept, that fruits are to be gathered inthe decaying of the Moon. Moreover,[the night and the day, the morning and theevening, do bestow their Moisture and their dryness Upon fruits,accordingly as theythemselves are cither moist or dry. The day, by reason of the presence of the Sun,is hot and dry. The night, by reason of the absence of the Sun, is cold and moist:The evening, by reason that it hath a little of the Sun, is partly warm; and yetwithal by reason of the approaching nighr, is partly moist: The morning, is partlycold, by reason of the rail of the night; and partly warm, by reason of the Sunapproaching: So then, let two or three hours of the day be spenr, and then thetime will be somewhat dry, because ic hath begun to be a little acquainted with theSun ; and withal somewhat cold, becausejt hath not yet quite forgotten and soakedeff the night ; and this is in all mens judgetnent the best and the fittest time whereinto gather fruit s. But least we soould make the matter too hard and difficult, by gi-ving such Astiological precepts, we will frame our selves to the plainest, and yet avery exact rule; namely, that the situation and aspect of the Planets is to be regar-ded, whereby the air becometh colder and dryer then at other times, and so con-sequently the fruit may last the longer. And, because we will not be too tedious,We will spare to alledge authorities and experiments which might be brought for theproof hereof, seeing all living creatures that are gendred in the full of the Moon,crsotn'what before, do grow much more then they that are gendred when soe is inthe waining. But let us come to examples. If you would know

The time y wherein Citrous are to he gathered^

Palladium reaches you in his book of the preserving of Citrons, If ycu would ga-ther Citrons to keep,faith he, you must pluck them with their boughs and leaves from

the