96 S Y L V A BOOK i 



would the ground be broken up 'twixt November 

 and February ; and when they spring, be clensed, 

 and thinn'd two foot asunder, after two years growth: 

 Likewise may copses of chesnuts be wonderfully 

 increased and thickned, by laying the tender and 

 young branches ; but such as spring from the nuts 

 and marrons, are best of all, and will thrive exceed- 

 ingly, if (being let stand without removing) the 

 ground be stirr'd, and loosened about their roots, for 

 two or three of the first years, and the superfluous 

 wood prun'd away ; and indeed for good trees, they 

 should be shrip'd up after the first year's removal ; 

 they also shoot into gallant poles from a felled stem : 

 Thus will you have a copse ready for a felling, 

 within eight years, which (besides many other uses) 

 will yield you incomparable poles for any work of 

 the garden, vineyard or hopyard, till the next cutting: 

 And if the tree like the ground, will in ten or twelve 

 years grow to a kind of timber, and bear plentiful 

 fruit. 



3. I have seen many chesnut-trees transplanted as 

 big as my arm, their heads cut off at five and six foot 

 height ; but they came on at leisure : In such plant- 

 ations, and all others for avenues, you may set them 

 from thirty to ten foot distance, though they will 

 grow much nearer, and shoot into poles, if (being 

 tender) you cultivate them like the ash, the nature 

 of whose shade it resembles, since nothing affects 

 much to grow under it : Some husbands tell me, that 

 the young chesnut-trees should not be pruned or 

 touched with any knife or edge-tool, for the first 

 three or four years, but rather cropp'd or broken off, 

 which I leave to farther experience ; however, many 

 forbear to top them, when they transplant. 



