EUROPEAN OR FIELD ELM. 493 



are very often procured from stools, simply by heaping up earth about the shoots 

 which proceed from them. These shoots throw out roots into the earth; and, 

 after growing three or four years, during wliicli time they acquire the height of 

 ten or fifteen feet, they are chpped olf, when tiiey are eitiier planted in the sites 

 where they are finally to remain, or in nursery lines. When they are trans- 

 planted to their final situations, the side shoots are cut off, and the main stem is 

 headed down to the height of eight or ten feet; so that newly-planted trees ap- 

 pear to be nothing more than naked truncheons. The first year, a great many 

 shoots are produced from tlie upper extremity of eacii plant; and in the autumn 

 of that year, or in the second spring, their shoots are all cut off but one, Avhich 

 soon forms an erect stem, and a tree with as regular a head as if no decapitation 

 had taken place. This mode corresponds with the recommendation of tvelyn, 

 to plant trees about the "scantling of your leg, and to trim off their heads at five 

 or six feet in height;" and also with Gate's mode of having the stems five 

 or six fingers thick, who says that " you can hardly plant an elm too big, pro- 

 vided you trim the roots and cut otf the head." All tlie avenues and rows of 

 elm-trees, in Europe, it is said, were planted in this manner, previously to about 

 the middle of the last century; and, according to M. Poitcau. the same practice 

 is still the most general in France. In Britain, young elms having been two or 

 three times transplanted in the nurseries, are removed to their final situations, with- 

 out heading down ; and, in the moist climate of that country, they grow vigorously 

 the first year without much pruning. Hut, in tlie south of Europe, where the cli- 

 mate of summer is hotter and more arid, and is attended with a consequent increased 

 evaporation from the leaves of plants, the trees are liable to be killed when trans- 

 planted with all their branches on ; and hence the mode of depriving them of their 

 branches as described above. For similar reasons, the same practice is requisite 

 in the United States to ensure success. In France and Belgium, the Ulmus cam- 

 pestris is the most common tree planted by road sides, and along the boulevards 

 and streets of cities and towns; and, in such cases, a large pit is previously dug, 

 four or five feet in diameter, and from two to three feet in depth ; and a con- 

 siderable portion of fine, rich mould is placed in immediate contact with the roots 

 of the trees, and the pit filled with the best part of the soil, which had been pre- 

 viously dug out of it. During the first summer, water is regularly supplied, and 

 the trees, or rather stumps, grow freely; very little attention being required after- 

 wards, except to encourage the leading shoots, and to shorten in, the lateral 

 branches, so as to encoiu'age the plants to assume a tree-like form. In the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, and in the south of France, the Ulmus campestris occa- 

 sionally bears seeds, which are sometimes sown by nurserymen, in order to pro- 

 cure new varieties, and by the managers of the national forests, in order to obtain 

 a supply of plants, at a cheap rate; but in Britain, this tree very rarely ripens 

 seeds, or produces them at all ; nevertheless, it has done so, in a few places, as 

 in Lea Park, near Littlebonrne, about four miles from (Canterbury. It is observed 

 by Bosc, that some of the more remarkable varieties, such as the twisted t-lm, 

 (Ulmus c. tortuosa.) &c., come tolerably true from seeds, speaking of the mass 

 of young plants; but that among these are constantly to be found numerous sub- 

 varieties. The seeds, which fall from the trees as soon as ihey are ripe, are 

 swept up and immediately sown in beds of light, rich soil : being placed about 

 an inch apart every way, they are covered to the depth of about an eighth of an 

 inch. The plants come up the same season, and are fit for transplanting into 

 nursery lines in the autumn following. 



"Of all the European timber trees," observes Loudon. " not belonging to the 

 coniferous family, excej^t the Fiombardy poplars, ilu- narrow-leaved elm. (Ulmus 

 campestris,) requires the least care or priming after it is planted: and. at the 

 same time, no tree will bear belter than it does, the knife or the shears. All 



