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P R U 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



P R U 



autumnal rains fall to moisten the ground ; the cuttings must 

 be the same year's shoots, and if they have a small part of the 

 former year's wood to their bottom, they will more certainly 

 succeed, and form better roots. These should be planted ; n 

 a soft loamy soil, about six inches deep, pressing the earth 

 close to them. If these are properly planted, and the ground 

 be good, few of the cuttings will fail ; and if they are kept 

 clean from weeds the following summer, they will have made 

 good shoots by the following autumn, when they may be trans- 

 planted into a nursery, where they may grow two years, to 

 acquire strength, and should then be removed to the places 

 where they are to remain. These plants were formerly kept 

 in pots and tubs, and preserved in green-houses in winter ; 

 but afterwards they were planted against warm walls, to 

 prevent them from being frequently injured by severe frost. 

 After this, a fashion arose of training the plants into pyramids 

 and globes, keeping them constantly sheared, by which the 

 broad leaves were often cut in the middle, and the plants 

 rendered very unsightly. Of late years they have been more 

 properly disposed in gardens, by planting them to border 

 woods, and the sides of wilderness quarters, for which purpose 

 we have but few plants so well adapted, as it will grow under 

 the drip of trees, in shade or sun ; and the branches will 

 spread to the ground, so as to form a thicket; and the leaves 

 being large, and having a fine glossy green colour, they set 

 off the woods and plantations in winter, when the other trees 

 have cast their leaves, besides making a good contrast with 

 the green of other trees in summer. They are sometimes 

 injured in very severe winters, where they stand singly, and 

 are much exposed; but where they grow in thickets, and are 

 screened by other trees, they are seldom much hurt ; for in 

 those places it is only the young tender shoots which are 

 injured, and there will be new shoots produced immediately 

 below these, to supply their place, so that in one year the 

 damage will be repaired. But whenever such severe winters 

 happen, these trees should not be cut or pruned till after the 

 following Midsummer ; by which time it will appear what 

 branches are dead, which may then be cut away, to the places 

 where the new shoots are produced ; for by hastily cutting 

 these trees in the spring, the drying winds obtain free ingress 

 to the branches, whereby the shoots suffer as much, if not 

 more, than they have previously done by frost. The best 

 way to obtain good plants certainly is to propagate these 

 trees from their berries. The trees thus raised, have a dis- 

 position to an upright growth; whereas almost all those 

 which are raised from cuttings or layers incline more to an 

 horizontal growth, and produce a greater number of lateral 

 branches. Whoever wishes to propagate this tree from seed, 

 must guard the berries from the birds, who will otherwise 

 devour them before they are perfectly ripe, which is seldom 

 before the latter end of September or the beginning of Octo- 

 ber, for they should hang until the outer pulp is quite black. 

 They should be sown soon after they are gathered, for they 

 frequently miscarry when kept out of the ground till spring; 

 and there will be no hazard in sowing them in autumn, pro- 

 vided they are put in a dry soil : and if the winter should 

 prove severe, the bed in which they are sown should be 

 covered with rotten tan, straw, pease-haulm, or any light cover- 

 ing, to prevent the frost from penetrating the ground. Tho 

 best way will be to sow the berries in rows at six inches dis- 

 tance, and one inch asunder in the rows. If drills be made 

 about three inches deep, and the berries scattered in them, 

 and the earth drawn over fliem, it will be a very good method. 

 The following spring the plants will appear, when they should 

 be kept dean from weeds : and if the season should prove 

 dry, and they be duly watered, the plants will make sufficient 



progress to bear removal in the following autumn. They 

 should at that time be carefully taken up, and planted in a 

 nursery, placing them in rows at three feet asunder, and the 

 plants at one foot distance in the rows. In this nursery they 

 may remain two years, by which time they will be fit to trans- 

 plant where they are designed to remain. Autumn is the 

 best season for transplanting, as soon as the rain has prepared 

 the ground for replanting ; for although they often grow when 

 removed in the spring, yet they never take so well, nor make 

 such good progress, as when removed in the autumn, especi- 

 ally if the plants are taken from a light soil, which generally 

 falls away from their roots : but if they be taken up with 

 balls of earth to their roots, and removed only to a small 

 distance, there will be no danger of transplanting them in 

 the spring, provided it be done before they begin to shoot; 

 for as they shoot very early, it is on that account the frequent 

 cause of their total failure. There are persons who have 

 grafted the Laurel upon Cherry stocks, with design to enlarge 

 the trees ; yet they seldom make much progress, although 

 they take very well upon each other, so that it is a mere 

 matter of curiosity: and to those who dnlight in such expe- 

 riments, we recommend the trial of the Laurel grafted upon 

 the Cornish Cherry, rather than any other sort of stock, 

 because the graft will unite better with this ; besides, it is 

 a regular tree, and grows large, so that it will be more likely 

 to produce large trees. Hunter says, in propagating the 

 Laurel from cuttings, the under leaves should be stripped 

 off. The cuttings may be set thick. The weather should 

 be rainy, or at least cloudy, when this work is done ; and 

 the beds should be under a north wall, or else well shaded. 

 If the weather will permit the cuttings to be planted in 

 August, they will then more certainly take root before win- 

 ter; but they should remain undisturbed till (he spring 

 twelvemonth following, when they should be carefully taken 

 out, and planted in the nursery. To raise the Laurel from 

 seeds, says Boutcher, in the beginning of winter, soon after 

 they are ripe, sow them in a shady border of fresh loose 

 mould, in beds three feet and a half broad, with alleys of 

 eighteen inches, covering them an inch and a half or two 

 inches deep. About the middle of April, if the weather be 

 dry and not frosty, water them frequently in the mornings, 

 and continue it in the evenings of the summer months. In 

 the succeeding spring remove them to the nursery, in rows 

 two feet asunder, and nine or ten inches in the row. In two 

 years, if the ground be good, and they have been properly 

 looked after, they will be fit for a final removal. The seed 

 beeds may be hooped over, that they may be coverpd occa- 

 sionally with mats when the frost is severe. When a large 

 plantation of Laurel is intended, the work of transplanting 

 may be done at any time during the winter, when the wea- 

 ther will permit, but October is the best season. The 

 ground must be well worked and cleaned, and the trees 

 planted in holes a yard asunder. Although they begin to 

 touch, still let them remain unthinned two or three years 

 longer, to draw one another up. Thin them sparingly at 

 first, only taking out a weakly plant here and there, to make 

 room for the vigorous shooting of the others : lest the cold 

 entering the plantation too suddenly, should retard its growth, 

 if not destroy it altogether. These trees have a pleasing 

 effect when mixed with other evergreens, in forming of 

 thickets, or to shut out the appearance of disagreeable ob- 

 jects ; for the leaves being very large, make a good blind, 

 and are equally useful for screening from winds : hence when 

 planted between flowering shrubs they may be trained so as 

 to fill up the vacancies in the middle of such plantations, 

 and will answer the purpose of screening in the winter, and 



