AUG.] THE NURSERY. 491 



NEW BUDDED TREES. 



You should now look carefully over the stalks which were budded 

 in July, and in three weeks, or at most a month after their being 

 worked, loosen the bandages, lest the buds should be pinched there- 

 by; and where there are any shoots produced below the buds, they 

 should be rubbed off. You ought, also, to examine the trees which 

 were budded in the former year, or grafted in the spring, and cut off 

 all the shoots that are produced beneath the inoculations or grafts ; 

 for if these are permitted to grow they will starve the proper shoots. 



PRESERVING THE STONES OP FRUITS. 



Preserve peach, plum, cherry, and apricot stones, &c., to sow for 

 raising stocks to bud and graft on. These may either be sown im- 

 mediately, or preserved till October or any of the following months, 

 in common garden earth or moist sand ; but it will be necessary to 

 embrace the first opportunity in spring, if not before, to sow them 

 before the stones open and the radicles begin to shoot, otherwise a 

 great number of these would be injured in the act of sowing. You 

 may mix the stones with either earth or sand, which put into garden 

 pots or boxes, and plunge these to their edges, and no deeper, in some 

 dry border, till the time of sowing. Every day that they are . kept 

 out of the ground is an injury to them, and if preserved in a dry 

 state till spring, very few will vegetate for a year after, and the far 

 greater number not at all. 



WEED AND WATER SEEDLINGS, ETC. 



The seedling trees and shrubs of all kinds must now be kept per- 

 fectly clean from weeds; for these, if permitted to grow among the 

 young plants, would totally ruin them. 



In dry weather you must be careful to give frequent waterings to 

 the seedling plants, whether in beds, boxes, or pots, according to their 

 respective necessities. 



Keep the ground between the rows of trees well hoed, and train 

 up the various sorts of forest-trees and shrubs for the several pur- 

 poses for which they are designed; but do not trim the stems of stand- 

 ard trees too close, for it is necessary to leave some small shoots to 

 detain the sap for the purpose of strengthening those parts. 



PREPARING GROUND FOR AUTUMN PLANTING. 



Towards the end of this month you should begin to clear and 

 trench the vacant quarters in which you intend to plant fruit-stocks, 

 or trees or shrubs of any kind, in October or November, &c., that 

 the rain may soak and mellow the ground before the season of plant- 

 ing ; and if the land be of a stiff nature, the laying of it up in high 

 sloping ridges, by exposing more surface to the sun, rain, and dews, 

 will greatly improve it, and it can be the more expeditiously levelled 

 down and rendered in a fit condition for planting, when necessary. 



