CHAP, iv S YL V A 71 



10. It would be planted as shallow as might be; 

 for, as we noted, deep interring of roots is amongst 

 the catholick mistakes ; and of this, the greatest to 

 which trees are obnoxious. Let new-planted elms be 

 kept moist by frequent refreshings upon some half- 

 rotten fern, or litter laid about the foot of the stem ; 

 the earth a little stirred and depressed for the better 

 reception and retention of the water. 



1 1 . Lastly, your plantation must above all things 

 be carefully preserved from cattel and the concussions 

 of impetuous winds, till they are out of reach of the 

 one, and sturdy enough to encounter the other. 



12. When you lop the side-boughs of an elm 

 (which may be about January for the fire, and more 

 frequently, if you desire to have them tall ; or that 

 you would form them into hedges, for so they may 

 be kept plashed, and thickned to the highest twig ; 

 affording both a magnificent and august defence 

 against the winds and sun) I say, when you trim 

 them, be careful to indulge the tops ; for they protect 

 the body of your trees from the wet, which always 

 invades those parts first, and will in time perish them 

 to the very heart ; so as elms beginning thus to decay, 

 are not long prosperous. Sir Hugh Plat relates 

 (as from an expert carpenter) that the boughs and 

 branches of an elm should be left a foot long next the 

 trunk when they are lopp'd ; but this is to my certain 

 observation, a very great mistake either in the relator, 

 or author ; for I have noted many elms so disbranched, 

 that the remaining stubs grew immediately hollow, 

 and were as so many conduits or pipes, to hold, and 

 convey the rain to the very body and heart of the 

 tree. 



13. There was a cloyster of the right French elm 



