70 TREE-PLANTING. 



It makes good firewood, throwing out great heat, and 

 burning brightly, and its charcoal is considered the 

 best for cooking purposes when charcoal needs to 

 be used, and is also used in the manufacture of 

 gunpowder. 



The seeds are usually ripe at the end of autumn, 

 and are contained in a small nut. Upon being sown 

 immediately they attain ripeness, they spring up in 

 an irregular manner, a few coming up during the first 

 spring, but the principal part of the crop in the 

 second year. It is therefore the usual custom to sow 

 the seeds in the spring, at the rate of one bushel of 

 seed to a bed fifty yards long and four feet wide, 

 covering them over with earth half an inch deep. 

 The seeds give no sign the first year after being sown, 

 but vegetate in the succeeding spring. They are 

 allowed to remain in the seed-bed till they are two 

 years old, if they do not stand too thickly. If they 

 are too crowded they are transplanted at a year old. 

 At two years of age they should be lifted, and the 

 extremities of their roots taken off, and then planted 

 out into nursery lines, sixteen inches asunder, the 

 plants four or five inches from each other. After 

 standing two years in lines, the plants are fit for 

 hedges, but if they are allowed to stand longer, and a 

 larger space is left for them to grow in, they are likely 

 to become tall and bare near the surface, which 

 renders them unfit for hedge plants, until they are 

 made bushy by being cut close down to the ground. 

 The plant is hardy and only requires to be kept clear 

 of weeds. 



Although in extreme instances the hornbeam has 

 been known to attain a height of eighty or ninety 



