CHAP, vin S Y L V A 95 



beginning of Spring, or in November, set them as 

 you would do beans ; and as some practise it, drench 'd 

 for a night or more, in new milk ; but without half 

 this preparation, they need only be put into the holes 

 with the point upmost, as you plant tulips ; Pliny will 

 tell you they come not up, unless four or five be 

 pil'd together in a hole ; but that is false, if they be 

 good, as you may presume all those to be which pass 

 this examination ; nor will any of them fail : But 

 being come up, they thrive best unremoved, making 

 a great stand for at least two years upon every trans- 

 planting ; yet if needs you must alter their station, 

 let it be done about November, and that into a light 

 friable ground, or moist gravel, however they will 

 grow even in clay, sand, and all mixed soils, upon 

 exposed and bleak places, and the pendent declivities 

 of hills to the north, in dry airy places, and sometimes 

 (tho' not so well) near marshes and waters ; but they 

 affect no other compost, save what their own leaves 

 afford them, and are more patient of cold than heat : 

 As for their sowing in the nursery, treat them as you 

 are taught in the wall-nut. 



2. If you design to set them in Winter, or Autumn, 

 I counsel you to interr them within their husks, 

 which being every way arm'd, are a good protection 

 against the mouse, and a providential integument. 

 Pliny 1. 15. c. 23. from this natural guard, concludes 

 them to be excellent food, and doubtless Caesar 

 thought so, when he transported them from Sardis 

 first into Italy, whence they were propagated into 

 France, and thence among us ; another encourage- 

 ment to make such experiments out of foreign coun- 

 tries. Some sow them confusedly in the furrow like 

 the acorn, and govern them as the oak ; but then 



