64 TREE-PLANTING. 



Evelyn describes the great chestnut of Tortworth,, 

 which is said to have been remarkable for its magni- 

 tude in the reign of King Stephen (1135), from which 

 it has been argued, that it may reasonably be pre- 

 sumed to have existed before the Conquest. It 

 stands in a soft loamy soil, on a north-west declivity 

 of a hill, in a position eminently suited for its growth. 

 Strutt, who describes it in his " Sylva Britannica," in 

 1820, gives its measurement at five feet from the 

 ground, as fifty-two feet in circumference, and its 

 cubical contents, according to the usual method of 

 measuring timber, to be 1,965 feet. The tree, when 

 described, ramified at the height of ten feet from the 

 ground into three limbs, one of which, at the distance 

 of fifty feet from the main trunk, was stated at that 

 time to have been twenty-eight feet in girth. The 

 tree has subsequently been described as of smaller 

 circumference (not having seen it myself) no un- 

 common result in the case of ancient trees, which 

 becoming ruins, are often carried away piecemeal. 



The tree is usually propagated from seeds of 

 English growth, foreign seeds being frequently kiln- 

 dried, to adapt them for travelling in packages. They 

 are sometimes sown in October and November, the 

 plants generally coming through the ground in April, 

 when they need protection, as they are likely to 

 receive injury from frost. 



In districts where late frosts prevail, the nursery- 

 men who are in the habit of raising chestnut trees, 

 preserve the seeds during winter in a dry airy place, 

 such as a loft floor, upon which they are spread, and 

 sow them early in spring, so that the plants do not 

 make a start above ground until the middle or end of 



