CUE 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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441 



out in rows, three feet asunder, and eighteen inches apart in 

 the rows ; never suffering the plants to abide long out of the 

 ground, that the roots may not become dry. This work may 

 be done in March, if there was not time for it in autumn. 

 Deep-trenching or double-digging being very expensive, those 

 who plant on a large scale may take a crop of Oats, Rape, 

 or Turnips, off the land, the year before they plant; by which 

 means the sward may be effectually destroyed, and the land 

 cleaned. After the crop is off, let the ground be trench- 

 ploughed, and then harrowed with heavy harrows. About 

 the end of October, let it be again ploughed cross-wise, and 

 harrowed as before, previous to the planting of the sets. In 

 planting these, having taken them carefully out of the seed- 

 bed, Hunter, in his Evelyn, advises to shorten the tap-root, 

 and take off part of the side-shoots. Each line should have 

 a man and boy: the man strikes his spade into the earth, 

 close to the line; he gives another stroke at right angles 

 with it; then the boy, having a parcel of plants under his 

 left arm, takes one with his right hand, and puts it into the 

 crevice made by the spade at the second stroke ; after this, 

 the man gently presses the mould to it with his foot. An 

 active man and boy will thus plant fifteen hundred or two 

 thousand in a day, and while they are planting, others should 

 be employed in taking up fresh sets, sorting them, and pre- 

 paring the roots. There should be a sufficient number of 

 hands, for the ground cannot be too soon planted when it is 

 ready; neither can the plants be put in too soon after they 

 are taken up ; and the weakest may be left a year longer, to 

 regain their strength. When they have taken root in the 

 nursery, they will require little more care than to keep them 

 free from weeds, and dig the ground between the lows every 

 spring; in doing which, you should cutoff such roots ns 

 extend very far from the trunks of the trees, which will ren- 

 der them better for transplanting again. Prune off also all 

 such side-branches as extend themselves very far, and retard 

 the upright shoot ; but on no account cut off all the small 

 lateral branches, some of which are absolutely necessary to 

 be left on to detain the sap for the augmentation of the trunk. 

 When these trees have remained in the nursery three or four 

 years, they will then be large enough to transplant to the 

 places where they are to remain, for it is hazardous to let 

 them grow very large before they are planted out, especially 

 after they have taken deep root. The above directions are 

 designed for small plantations for pleasure only, in a garden 

 or park; we shall now subjoin the directions and observations 

 of the most experienced planters concerning that most im- 

 portant national concern, the cultivation of Oak for timber. 

 Where these trees, says Mr. Miller, are cultivated with a view 

 to profit, the acorns should be planted where the trees are 

 designed to grow; for those which are transplanted will never 

 grow to the size of those which are sown, nor yet last so long 

 sound. The first thing is, to prepare the ground by fencing 

 it, to keep out cattle, hares, and rabbits, which would soon 

 destroy all the young trees ; for though the plants will in a 

 few years grow out of danger from hares and rabbits, as it 

 will be many years before they are past injury from cattle, 

 durable fences should be put round the ground. If in the 

 beginning, a pale-fence is made about the land, which may 

 be close at the bottom, and open Tibove, and within the pale 

 a quick-hedge is planted; this will become a good fence, by 

 the time the pale decays, against all sorts of cattle, by which 

 time the trees will be too hard for hares and rabbits to gnaw. 

 After the gVound is well fenced, it should be prepared three 

 or four times, and harrowed well after each ploughing, to 

 break the clods, and to cleanse the grounds from Couch, and 

 the Boots of all bad weeds. Indeed, if the ground be green- 



sward, it will be better to have one c-rop of Beans, Pease, or 

 Turnips, off it, before the acorns are sown, especially if these 

 crops be well hoed, to stir the surface and destroy the weeds. 

 But the ground should be ploughed as soon as possible after 

 the crop is taken off, to prepare it for the acorns, which 

 should be sown as soon as possible after they are ripe. This, 

 with all its risk, Mr. Miller thinks is the best plan. In choos- 

 ing the acorns, all those should be preferred which are taken 

 from the largest and most thriving trees. Those from pollard- 

 trees should always be rejected. The season for sowing the 

 acorns being come, and the ground having been ploughed, 

 and levelled smooth, the next work is to sow the acorns, 

 which must be done by drawing drills across the ground, at 

 about four feet asunder, and two inches deep, dropping 

 the acorns into them six or eight inches asunder. These 

 drills may be drawn either with a drill-plough, or by hand 

 with a hoe ; but the former is the most expeditious method, 

 and should be preferred in large plantations. In drawing 

 the drills, where the land slopes to one side, they should be 

 made the same way as the ground slopes, that there may bo 

 no stoppage of the wet by the rows of plants crossing the 

 hanging of the land. This should be particularly observed 

 in all wet ground, or where the wet is subject to lie in win- 

 ter, but in dry land it is not of much consequence. When 

 the acorns are sown, the drills, should be carefully filled in, 

 so as to cover the acorns securely, for if any of them are 

 exposed, they will entice the birds and mice ; and if either 

 of these once attack them, they will make great havock. 

 Drills made at this distance will allow of stirring the ground 

 between the rows, and also of weeding, without which it can- 

 not be expected that the young plants can make much pro- 

 gress. Whoever, Mr. Miller insists, hopes to have success ia 

 their Oak plantations, should determine to keep them clean for 

 eight or ten years after sowing, by which time the plants 

 will have acquired strength enough to keep down the weeds : 

 and it is nothing but the entire neglect of this which has 

 caused so many plantations to miscarry. About the middle 

 of April, the young plants will appear above the ground; but 

 before this, if the ground should produce many young weeds, 

 it will be good husbandry to scuffle the surface over with 

 Dutch hoes in a dry time, at the latter end cf March or the 

 beginning of April, just before the plants come up. In the 

 first summer, while the plants are young, it will be the best 

 way to perform those hoeings by hand, but afterwards it may 

 be done with the hoe-plough ; for as the roots are to be 

 placed four feet asunder, there will be room enough for this 

 plough to work; and as this will stir and loosen the ground, 

 it will be of great service to the plants: but there will require 

 a little hand labour even where the plough is used, in order 

 to destroy the weeds which will come up in the rows between 

 the plants, for these will be out of the reach of the plough ; 

 and if they are not destroyed, they will soon overgrow and 

 bear down the young plants. After they have grown two 

 years, .it will be proper to draw out some of them, where 

 they grow too close; but in doing this, especial care must 

 be taken not to injure the roots of those left, for as the plants 

 to be drawn out will afterwards be only fit for pleasure plan- 

 tations, they should be always sacrificed, wherever it will 

 ensure the safety of those which are to remain. In the thin- 

 ning of these plantations, the plants may at the first time be 

 left about one foot asunder, which will give them room enough 

 to grow two or three years longer, by which time it may be 

 easy to judge which are likely to make the best trees, which 

 may then be marked to remain ; and it will be prudent to 

 mark double the desired number, to provide against unex- 

 pected failure. If at this second thinning they be left four 



