142 [FEB. 



THE NURSERY. 



?* The various instructions given in the course of this month, 

 for the Nursery, as far as they relate to work which is to be done 

 in the open ground, are on the presumption that the severe winter 

 frosts, have, towards the end of the month, disappeared, and that 

 the ground at that time, is in a fit state for cultivation ; at least suf- 

 ficiently so, for the reception of plants of a very hardy nature, and 

 such as, if planted, could receive no injury whatever, from any sub- 

 sequent frost or severity of weather, and that will succeed better by 

 taking the earliest possible advantage of the season : moreover, it 

 is the better way to have as much of your business done at as early 

 a period as possible, the better to enable you to meet the great 

 pressure, which, with respect to planting, sowing, grafting, 8cc. 8cc. 

 must be attended to in March. 



But when the weather in the latter end of this month is severe, or 

 the ground bound up by frost, there is no alternative, but to defer 

 the business till the arrival of a more favourable period. 



Propagating by Cuttings, fcr'c. 



Plant cuttings of gooseberries and currants, according to the rules 

 laid down in next month and in October ; these will form tolerable 

 branchy heads by the end of summer, and will produce fruit in a 

 year or two after. 



Be careful to train these trees always with a single stem, six or 

 eight, to ten or twelve inches high, before you form the head. 



Plant also cuttings of honey-suckels, and other hardy flowering 

 shrubs and trees ; as many different sorts may be propagated by that 

 method. 



The cuttings must be shoots of the former year's growth : choose 

 such as have strength, cutting them from the respective trees and 

 shrubs in proper lengths ; or long shoots may be divided into two 

 or more cuttings, which should not be shorter than eight inches, 

 nor much longer than twelve. Plant them in rows two feet 

 asunder, at six or eight inches distance in the row, putting each 

 cutting two thirds of its length into the earth. 



Most kinds which are thus planted now, will be well rooted by 

 next October. 



Propagating by Suckers. 



Many kinds of trees and shrubby plants, furnish abundance of 

 suckers from the roots for propagation, particularly robinia's rose?, 

 lilac's, syringa's, and many other hardy kinds : the suckers may 

 now be separated from the parent plants, each with some roots, and 

 planted either in nursery rows for a year or two, or the largest, at 

 ence, where they are to remain. 



