CHAP. n S YL V A 17 



(if the kind, of which hereafter, suffer the knife) set 

 them where they are to continue : If thus you 

 reduce them o the distance of forty foot, the intervals 

 may be planted with ash, which may be fell'd either 

 for poles, or timber, without the least prejudice of the 

 oak : Some repeat the cutting we spake of the second 

 year, and after March (the moon decreasing) re-cut 

 them at half a foot from the surface ; and then meddle 

 with them no more : But this (if the process be not 

 more severe than needs) must be done with a very 

 sharp instrument, and with care, lest you violate, 

 and unsettle the root ; which is likewise to be practis'd 

 upon all those which you did not transplant, unless 

 you find them very thriving trees ; and then it shall 

 suffice to prune off the branches, and spare the tops ; 

 for this does not only greatly establish your plants by 

 diverting the sap to the roots ; but likewise frees them 

 from the injury and concussions of the winds, and 

 makes them to produce handsome, streight shoots, 

 infinitely preferable to such as are abandon'd to 

 nature, and accident, without this discipline : By this 

 means the oak will become excellent timber, shooting 

 into streight and single stems : The chess-nut, ash, fc. 

 multiply into poles, which you may reduce to 

 standards at pleasure : To this I add, that as oft as 

 you make your annual transplanting, out of the 

 nursery, by drawing forth the choicest stocks, the 

 remainder will be improved by a due stirring, and 

 turning of the mould about their roots. 



But that none be discouraged, who may upon 

 some accident, be desirous, or forc'd to transplant 

 trees, where the partial, or unequal ground does not 

 afford sufficient room, or soil to make the pits equally 

 capacious, (and so apt to nourish and entertain the 



