CHAP. CV. CORYLA CER. Fa‘GUS. 1969 
of March till the beginning of April. Autumn might be adopted for sowing, 
were it not that the nuts are greedily sought after, through the winter, by mice 
and other vermin. One bushel of seed, according to Mitchell, weighs 34 lb. 
unheaped, and contains 58,656 seeds. From 13 bushel of seeds, the produce 
of the year 1786, kept in sand till the following spring, not less than 150,000 
plants were raised, and planted on the Muirland Hills, at Dillorn, Stafford- 
shire, by J. Halliday, Esq., who received a gold medal for so doing. (7Zrans. 
Soc. Arts, vol. x., for 1792, p. 18.) The soil in which the nuts are sown 
ought always to be light, and more or less rich, as the plants are rather tender 
when young. They may either be sown in beds, or in drills, with the usual 
covering of soil, being about 1 in. The seeds should not lie nearer to one 
another, when sown, than lin. Mast, sown in the autumn, will come up 
in April ; and that sown in spring, seldom later than the beginning of May. 
Boutcher sows in the beginning of March, in thin shallow drills, about 1 ft. 6 in. 
asunder ; watering, if the season is dry, frequently, but moderately, from the 
plants beginning to appear above ground, till the middle of August; which, he 
says, greatly forwards their growth. “ In March, next season, with a spade 
made very sharp for the purpose, undermine the roots as they stand in the 
drills, and cut them over between 4 in. or 5in, under ground. The following 
autumn or spring, you may either raise the whole, or give them another cut- 
ting below ground ; when, gently raising such as are too thick, leave the re- 
mainder, at proper distances, to stand another season. This manner of cutting 
the roots dexterously has, in a great measure, the same effect as trans- 
planting.” (Treatise, &c., p.22.) After the plants have stood 2 years, or, if 
in poor soil, 3 years, they may be ‘transplanted in lines 2 ft. asunder, and 
Yin. or 10 in. in the line. A great error in treating the beech tree at this age, 
Boutcher observes, is trimming off all its side branches, and planting only the 
bare stem. This, he says, is doing the greatest violence to the plants, as no 
tree admits of being less pruned at transplanting than the beech, especially 
when young; the plants “ constantly turning hide-bound and stunted when 
that is severely done ;” therefore, nothing but “ very cross ill-placed branches, 
and even these very sparingly, are to be touched at this time.” After the 
plants have remained in these lines 2 years, they are to be removed into 
other lines, 3 ft. 6 in. asunder, and at 1 ft. 6 in. apart in the line; whence, after 
remaining in good soil 3, but in poor land 4, years, they may either be 
removed into a general plantation, where they are to remain permanently, or, 
if they are to be transplanted from the nursery of a large size, they must 
undergo the further discipline of being once, twice, or thrice transplanted, till 
at last they stand 10 ft. asunder every way. During the whole of this treat- 
ment, they must scarcely receive any pruning, except in the season before 
final removal. At their removal they must not be pruned at all; but, when 
once established, they may be pruned at pleasure, as every beech hedge and 
beech coppice shows. In respect to the latter, indeed, a common expres- 
sion in Buckinghamshire is, “‘ Cut a beech, and have a beech.” 
Final Culture in Plantations. The beech, after being transplanted where it 
is finally to remain, if in masses, and the plants not above 3 ft. or 4ft. high, 
may be cut down to the ground, and the leading shoot produced the following 
year selected, and trained so as to form a clear stem, It has been found, from 
experience, that trees of 20 years’ or 30 years’ growth, when transplanted, suffer 
much by pruning at that time, and cannot have their heads cut in, like the oak, 
the elm, and almost every other species of deciduous membranaceous-leaved 
trees, when they are transplanted of large size. They may, however, be cut 
in a year or two years before removal, and will, in that case, transplant with 
a much better chance of success. Where a beech wood is to be formed 
on a light poor soil, provided the surface admits of being pulverised by 
the plough and harrow, or of being trenched, it may be sown with mast in 
drills, without the admixture of the seeds of any other tree. The ground may 
be cultivated, for two or three years, between the rows, by horse-hoeing ; and 
the plants may be thinned out the second year, so as to stand at 6 ft. apart in 
6m 2 
