62 THE NURSERY. [JAN. 



The raising of Osage orange, buckthorn, thorn- quicks and other 

 plants, suitable for making live hedges, ought also to command at- 

 tention ; especially in such parts of the Union as timber is getting 

 scarce and dear in. The planting and establishing of such hedges 

 must ultimately be resorted to, and the sooner it is commenced the 

 better. 



Conscious of the great utility of such establishments, I shall in 

 the course of this work give such ample and minute instructions, for 

 the raising and propagation of fruit and forest-trees, ornamental trees 

 and shrubs, thorn-quicks, &c. &c., as may lead the most inexperi- 

 enced persons to a complete knowledge of the business ; which may 

 be pursued upon a small or a more extensive scale, as it suits. 



In the nursery may also be raised all sorts of hardy herbaceous 

 plants, both fibrous, bulbous, and tuberous-rooted, for adorning the 

 flower garden, pleasure-ground, and to plant for medical use, &c. 



EXTENT, SOIL, SITUATION, &C. 



With respect to the proper extent or dimensions of a nursery, 

 whether for private use or public supply, it must be according to the 

 quantity of plants required, or the demand for sale : if for private 

 use, from a quarter to half an acre or more may be sumcient, which 

 must be regulated according to the extent of garden ground and 

 plantations it is required to supply ; and if for a public nursery, for 

 any general cultivation, not less than three or four acres of land will 

 be worth occupying as such, and from that to fifteen or twenty acres 

 or more may be requisite, according to the demand. 



The soil for a mirsery, requires particular attention. It ought to 

 be naturally good for at least one full spade deep, or if more, the 

 better ; always prefer a loamy soil of a moderately light tempera- 

 ment, which cannot naturally be too good, notwithstanding what 

 some advance to the contrary, even though the trees should after- 

 wards be removed into a poorer soil. Reason teaches, that young 

 trees growing vigorously and freely in a good soil, will form numerous 

 and healthy roots, and when they come to be afterwards planted in 

 worse land, they will be able, from the strength of their constitution 

 and multiplicity of roots, to feed themselves freely with coarser food. 

 On the contrary, young trees raised upon poor land, by having their 

 vessels contracted and their outward bark mossy and diseased, will be 

 a long time, even after being removed into a rich soil, before they 

 attain to a vigorous state. If the roots of the young plants have not 

 a good soil, or sumcient room to strike in, there will be little hope of 

 their furnishing themselves with that ample stock of roots and fibres 

 which is necessary to a good plant, and with which every young tree 

 ought to be well furnished, when removed for final transplantation. 



Most authors who have written on the kind of soil most suitable 

 for a nursery have differed in their opinions, even so far as to be 

 almost quite contradictory to one another; and the common opinion 

 is in favor of the soil being the same, nearly similar, or rather worse, 

 than that into which the trees are to be finally planted. But this is 

 setting out upon a very wrong principle ; for, were a nursery to be 



