64 S Y L V A BOOK i 



mould thinly over them, and watering them when 

 need requires. Being risen (which may be within 

 4 or 5 months) an inch above ground (refreshed, and 

 preserved from the scraping of birds and poultry) 

 comfort the tender seedlings by a second sifting of 

 more fine earth, to establish them ; thus keep them 

 clean weeded for the first two years, and cleansing 

 the side-boughs ; or till being of fitting stature to 

 remove into a nursery at wider intervals, and even 

 rows, you may thin and transplant them in the same 

 manner as you were directed for young oaks ; only 

 they shall not need above one cutting, where they 

 grow less regular and hopeful. But because this is 

 an experiment of some curiosity, obnoxious to many 

 casualties, and that the producing them from the 

 mother-roots of greater trees is very facile and 

 expeditious (besides the numbers which are to be 

 found in the hedge-rows and woods, of all plantable 

 sizes) I rather advise our forester to furnish himself 

 from those places. 



3. The suckers which I speak of, are produced in 

 abundance from the roots, whence, being dextrously 

 separated, after the earth has been well loosened, and 

 planted about the end of October, they will grow 

 very well : Nay, the stubs only, which are left in the 

 ground after a felling (being fenced in as far as the 

 roots extend) will furnish you with plenty, which 

 may be transplanted from the first year or two, suc- 

 cessively, by slipping them from the roots, which 

 will continually supply you for many years, after that 

 the body of the mother-tree has been cut down : 

 Aud from hence probably is sprung that (I fear) 

 mistake of Salmasius and others, where they write 

 of the growing of their chips (I suppose having some 



