50 THE NURSERY. [JAW. 



indeed, where there are but a few, you may, if you please, water them 

 occasionally, if it proves a very dry spring in April and May ; but 

 where there are great plantations, it would be an almost insuppor- 

 table fatigue, and a great expense. 



Every winter or spring, the ground between the rows of all sorts 

 of transplanted plants in the open Nursery-quarters must be digged ; 

 this is particularly necessary to all the tree and shrub-kinds that 

 stand wide enough in rows to admit the spade between ; which 

 work is by the Nursery-men called turning-in; the most general 

 season for this work is, any time from October to the latter end of 

 March ; but the sooner it is done the more advantageous it will 

 prove to the plants. The ground is to be digged one spade deep, 

 proceeding row by row, turning the top of each spit clean to the 

 bottom, that all weeds on the top may be buried a proper depth to 

 rot : this work of turning-in is a most necessary annual operation, 

 both to destroy weeds, and to increase the growth of the young 

 Nursery -plants. 



In summer be remarkably attentive to keep all sorts clean from 

 weeds ; tire seedlings growing close in the seminary -beds must be 

 hand-weeded ; but among plants of all sorts that grow in rows 

 wide enough to introduce a hoe, this will prove not only the most 

 expeditious method of destroying weeds, but by loosening the top 

 of the soil, it will prove good culture in promoting the growth of 

 all kinds of plants ; always perform this work of hoeing in dry- 

 weather, in due time before the weeds grow large, and you may 

 soon go over a great space of ground, either with a common draw- 

 ing-hoe, or occasionally with a scuffling-hoe, as you shall find the 

 most convenient. 



According as any quarters or compartments of the Nursery-ground 

 are cleared from plants, others must be substituted in their room 

 from the seminary, &c. but the ground should previously be trenched 

 and lie some time fallow, to recruit or recover its former vigour ; 

 giving it also the addition of manure, if it shall seem proper ; and 

 after being trenched in ridges, and having the repose only of one 

 winter, or summer, or a year at most, it will sufficiently recover its 

 vegetative force, and may be planted afresh. 



It will be of advantage to plant the ground, with plants of a differ- 

 ent kind from those which occupied it before. 



The tender or exotic plants of all kinds that require shelter only 

 from frost, whilst young, as formerly mentioned, and by degrees 

 become hardy enough to live in the open air ; should, such of them 

 as are seedlings in the open ground, have the beds arched over with 

 hoops, cr rods, at the approach of winter, in order to be sheltered 

 with mats in severe weather ; and those which are in pots, either 

 seedlings or transplanted plants, should be removed in October in 

 their pots, to a warm sunny situation sheltered with hedges, &c. 

 placing some close under the fe-nces facing the sun, where they 

 may have occasional covering of mats in frosty weather ; others 

 that are more tender may be placed in frames, to have occasional 

 covering either of glass-lights or mats, &c. from frost; observing 

 of all those sorts here alluded to, that they are gradually to be 





