P I N 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



P I N 



323 



own on an east or north-east border, where they may be 

 screened from the sun, whose heat is very injurious to these 

 plants at their first appearance above ground. Those seeds 

 which are sown in pots or boxes, should also be placed in 

 a shady situation, but not under trees ; and if they be screened 

 from the sun with mats at the time when they first come up, 

 it will be a good method to preserve them. Most of the 

 sorts will come up in about six or seven weeks after they are 

 sown, but the seeds of the Stone or Cultivated Pine, and 

 two or three of the others, the shells of which are very hard, 

 frequently lie in the ground a whole year ; so that when the 

 plants do not come up the first year, the ground should not 

 be disturbed, but kept clean from weeds, and the following 

 spring the plants will rise. This frequently happens in dry 

 seasons, and when they are sown in places a little too much 

 exposed to the sun. Hence the surest method is to soak 

 the seeds in water twenty-four hours before they are sown. 

 When the plants appear, they must be constantly kept clean 

 from weeds ; and in very dry seasons, if they are now and 

 then gentlv refreshed with water, it will forward their growth; 

 but this must be done with great care and caution, for if 

 they are hastily watered, it will wash the tender plants out 

 of the ground, or lay them down flat, which often rots their 

 shanks ; so that unless it be judiciously performed, it will 

 be the best way to give them none, and only to screen them 

 from the sun. If the plants come up too close, it will be a 

 good method to thin them gently about the beginning of 

 July. The plants which are drawn up may then be planted 

 on other beds, which should be ready to receive them imme- 

 diately, because their tender shoots are soon dried and 

 spoiled at this season of the year. This work should be 

 done if possible in cloudy or rainy weather, and then the 

 plants will draw out better roots, and will soon put out new 

 fibres again ; but if the weather should prove clear and dry, 

 the plants should be shaded every day from the sun with 

 mats, and now and then gently refreshed with water. In 

 drawing up the redundant plants, take care not to disturb 

 the roots of those left remaining in the seed-beds; and on 

 this account, if the ground beJiard, it should be well watered 

 some time before the plants are thinned, to soften and loosen 

 the earth ; and if, after the plants are drawn out, the beds 

 are also gently watered, to settle the earth to the roots of the 

 remaining plants, it will be of great service to them ; but it 

 must be done with great care, so as not to wash out their 

 roots, or lay the plants. The distance which should be 

 allowed these plants in the new beds, is four or five inches 

 row from row, and three inches in the rows. The tender 

 sorts should be sheltered in winter by frames or mats. In 

 these beds the plants may remain till the spring twelve-months 

 after, by which time they will be fit to transplant where they 

 are to remain for good, for the younger the plants are when 

 planted out, the better they will succeed; for although some 

 sorts will bear transplanting at a much greater age, yet young 

 plants set at the same time, will in a few years overtake the 

 large ones, and soon outstrip them in their growth ; and there 

 is an advantage in planting young, by saving the expense 

 of staking, and much watering, which large plants require. 

 The best season to transplant all the sorts of Pines, is about 

 the latter end of March or the beginning of April, just before 

 i they begin to shoot; for although the Scotch Pine, and 

 some of the most hardy sorts, may be transplanted in winter, 

 especially when they are growing on strong land, where they 

 may be taken with balls of earth to their roots ; yet this is 

 not advisable for common practice, being often attended 

 with bad consequences, but those which are removed in the 

 spring rarely fail. Wherever large plantations are designed 

 VOL. ii. 93. 



to be made, the best method will be to raise the plants either 

 upon a part of the same land, or as near to the place as pos- 

 sible, and also upon the same sort of soil ; a small piece of 

 ground will be sufficient to raise plants enough for many 

 acres : but as the plants require some care in the first raising, 

 if the neighbouring cottagers, who have many of them small 

 inclosures adjoining to their cottages, or where this is want- 

 ing, a small inclosure should be made them for the purpose 

 of raising the plants, and they are furnished with the seeds 

 and directions for sowing them, and managing the young 

 plants till they are fit for transplanting, the women and chil- 

 dren may be usefully employed in this work, and the pro- 

 prietors of land agreeing with them to take their plants when 

 raised at a certain price ; it would be a great benefit to the 

 poor, which would ensure their care to prevent the planta- 

 tions from being destroyed. The Scotch Pine, as was before 

 observed, being the hardest of all the kinds, and the wood 

 of it the most useful, is the sort which best deserves care. 

 This will thrive upon the most barren sands, where scarcely 

 any thing but Heath and Furze will grow ; and there are 

 many thousand acres of such land lying convenient for water 

 carriage, which at present are of little profit to any body, 

 that might by plantations of these trees become good estates 

 to their proprietors, and also a national benefit; and as the 

 legislature has taken this into consideration, and passed laws 

 for encouraging such plantations, it can hardly fail to produce 

 great public advantage. And although the present posses- 

 sors of these plantations may not reap much profit, yet their 

 successors will receive large interest; and the pleasure 

 which those growing trees will afford them, by beautifying 

 the many dreary parts of the country, will in some measure 

 requite their trouble and expense, and at the same time create 

 employment for the poor. The expense of making these plan- 

 tations is what most people are afraid of: but the greatest 

 cost is that of fencing them from the cattle, for the other is 

 trifling, as there will be no necessity for preparing the ground 

 to receive the plants ; and the charge of planting an acre of 

 land with them, will not be more than twenty or thirty shil- 

 lings, where labour is dear, exclusive of the plants, -which 

 may be valued at forty shillings more. The distance at which 

 they should be planted is about four feet, but always irregular, 

 avoiding planting in rows as much as possible ; and in the 

 process, the great art is not to take up the plants faster than 

 they can be planted, so that some men have been employed 

 in digging up the plants, while others were planting. Those 

 who take up the plants must be looked after, to see they do 

 not tear off their roots, or wound their bark ; and as fast as 

 they are taken up, their roots are covered, to prevent their 

 drying, and put into their new quarters as soon as possible. 

 In planting, take care to make the holes large enough for 

 the roots, and also to loosen and break the clods of earth, 

 and put the finest immediately about their roots, settling it 

 gently down with the foot. If these directions be observed,' 

 and a proper season chosen for planting, there will be little 

 doubt of the plants succeeding. After the plantations are 

 made, the only care they require for five or six years, will 

 be to secure the plants from cattle, hares, and rabbits, 

 which will make great destruction in a short time by gnawing 

 the branches, which always greatly retards, and often de- 

 stroys, the plants. By the time five or six years have past, 

 the branches of the young trees will have met/ and begun to 

 interfere with each other: hence they will require cautious 

 pruning. The lower tier of branches only should be cut oft" 

 in September, at which time there will be no danger of the 

 wounds bleeding too much ; and the turpentine will harden 

 over the wounds as the season grows cold, and prevent the 

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