MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG PLANTS. 53 



Into nursery rows, (which is much the best method,) 

 they may be protected as directed under the head 

 of u fall management in the nursery," and so during 

 the winter ; and in the spring they may be prepared 

 for a summer's growth. 



The methods of management of seedling trees, like 

 other processes in horticulture, are various. I shall 

 describe that which from practice and observation 

 appears to me to be the best, and leave the proof of 

 its correctness to the inquiring practitioner. 



The two principal objects to be kept in view in 

 the growth of seedlings the second year is, to cause 

 them to form a number of branching fibrous roots 

 and to enlarge in the main stem or stock a little 

 above the ground, where engrafting is to take place 

 when planted into nursery rows. These two essen- 

 tial points are often not only disregarded but oppos- 

 ed by allowing seedlings to grow thickly together 

 the second year without any restraint or management, 

 and the consequence is, that they grow into long 

 slender stems without acquiring bulk and substance 

 at the proper place, the base of the stem ; the top is 

 superabundant, and the roots are contracted to mere- 

 ly a tap root, which running into the subsoil forms 

 fibres where they must be severed from the plant 

 when removed. 



The management I recommend for seedlings the 

 the second year is, to look over the bed and thin 

 out the plants to three inches apart, leaving the most 

 healthy plants in the^bed. This done take a sharp 

 plate spade, and placing it in the ground six or eight 

 inches from the outside of the rows, press it under 

 them five or six inches ; then press it underneath 

 the plants to the centre of the bed in such a manner 



