September

Thresh seed, and to fanning, September doth cry,
get plough to the field, and be sowing of rye;
To harrow the ridges, ere ye strike, 
is one piece of husbandry Suffolk doth like.

Sow timely thy white wheat, sow rye in the dust,
let seed have his longing, let soil have her lust;
Let rye be partaker or Michelmas spring,
to bear out the hardness that winter doth bring.

Some mixeth to miller the rye with the wheat
temmes loaf, on his table, to have for to eat:
But sow it not mixed, to grow so on land,
lest rye tarry wheat, till it shed as it stand.

If soil do desire to have rye with the wheat,
by growing together, for safety more great;
Let white wheat be t’one, be it dear, be it cheap,
the sooner to ripe, for the sickle to reap.

Let pasture be stored, and fenced about,
and tillage set forward, as needeth without;
Before ye do open your purse, to begin
with anything doing, for fancy within.

Provide against Michelmas, bargain to make,
for terms to give over, to keep or to take;
In doing of either, let wit bear a stroke,
for buying or selling of pig in a poke.

New farmer may enter (as champions say,)
on all that is fallow, at Lent Lady-day;
In woodland, old farmer to that will not yield,
for losing of pasture, and feed of his field.

At Michelmas lightly, new farmer comes in,
new husbandry forceth him, new to begin;
Old farmer, still taking, the time to him given,
makes August to last, until Michelmas even.

From Thomas Tusser’s Farming Calendar c. 1540.