162 THE NURSERY. [FEB. 



The business being thus finished for the present, should you at a 

 future period perceive, especially when the plants are beginning to 

 appear above ground, any stiffness on the surface occasioned by dry 

 weather, give the beds frequent but gentle waterings, till all those in- 

 nocent prisoners are released from their bondage, after which you 

 will have pleasure and profit in their progress. 



But this is not all ; the whole of your former trouble will be totally 

 lost, unless you are particularly careful in keeping these beds effect- 

 ually free from weeds from the moment the plants appear above 

 ground, till they are fit to be planted in hedge-rows, and even then, 

 until they have arrived at a sufficient size not to be injured by such. 



It was an old practice to sow these seeds as soon as ripe, covering 

 them about an inch deep; but the loss of the ground during the long 

 period in which they lie dormant, the trouble and expense of weeding 

 them all that time, the numbers pulled up and exposed to animals of 

 various sorts, and I may say the exposure of the whole to mice, 

 squirrels, &c., have very justly induced to the abandonment of that 

 mode of culture. 



Indeed, they may be sown with considerable safety the November 

 twelve months after they are ripe, being previously prepared as before 

 directed, there is no impediment in their way at that season, but their 

 long exposure to the depredations of mice, &c., which are extremely 

 fond of their kernels ; as to frost they value it not. However, upon 

 the whole, I prefer the early spring sowing, and have generally prac- 

 tised it with the best success. 



Many of these plants, and indeed the greater number, if the 

 ground be good, will be fit for planting into the face of ditches the 

 autumn or spring following, and the entire of them that time twelve 

 months ; but if they are intended for forming upright hedges, the 

 strongest of the year old plants must, in the month of March, or 

 very early in April, be drawn out of the seed-beds, their long tap- 

 roots cut off, so as to shorten them to the length of five or six inches, 

 and then planted into nursery rows about two feet asunder, and the 

 plants to be about six inches distant in these rows ; having there two 

 or three years' growth, they will be in prime condition for that pur- 

 pose ; the remaining plants may be taken up the spring following, 

 and treated in the same way. 



It often happens that an after-growth of young plants arises in the 

 seed-bed the second year, particularly when the haws have not been 

 well prepared ; these seldom come to anything : but if you pursue 

 the method already prescribed, you may depend on a good and gene- 

 ral crop the first year. 



The various kinds of hawthorns that, on account of their spininess 

 might suit for live hedges, are the following ; all being indigenous in 

 the United States, except the first, which is the kind principally used 

 in Europe for that purpose. 



1. Cratsegus oxyacantha, or common European hawthorn, or 

 whitethorn. Leaves obtuse sultrifate serrate. 



With a robust trunk, branching from the bottom upwards to ten 

 or fifteen feet high, the branches armed with spines ; leaves obtuse, 

 trifid and sawed, with numerous clusters of flowers from the sides 



