The Gardener's New Director. 441 



branches of trees, and dug the earth two feet and a half 

 deep, making it very fine, and I mixed the afhcs with the 

 foil : but in this I found myfelf ahb miftaktn ; for at the 

 end of three years my trees were rather woile than be- 

 fore, and I was obliged to give up the Lxperimeiit. 



For this ill fuccefs feveral realons may be given. 7 he 

 firfl: year, after drelfing the ground in the manner above- 

 mentioned, I had many enemies to encounter with, fuch 

 as birds, mice, i^c. and fuch a profufion of weeds, that 

 I was continually obliged to be hoeing with inftruments, 

 or weeding with my hand. It was then I remembered, 

 though too late, that gardeners, when they enter on a 

 new Ipot of ground, expect but fmall crops for the firft 

 three yeais, until tiie weeds be entirely rooted out. But 

 this was not the greateft inconvenience with me; I want- 

 ed water for the young plants in the kimmer-time, as 

 the continual working among them, in taking away 

 the weeds, made the foil very burning and dry, and fo 

 loofe, that the cold eafily penetrated to their roots, and 

 a north wind, accompanied with a ievere trofl:, about 

 the beginning of April , which was preceded by a good 

 deal of rain, did all my plants an irreparable injury. 



Neverthelefs 1 did not give over the projefl, but en- 

 deavoured to remedy the evil that the froft had done me, 

 by cutting off all the dead or dying parts of my plants : 

 This had a very good effect, and as I had but a fmall 

 quantity of water to give them, I referved it for a more 

 preffing occafion. I diminifhed the number of my weed- 

 ings, left that by often weeding I fhould havedrycd the 

 ground too much about them. The fuccefs was this ; 

 that in AuguJI my plants refumed their vigour, but ftill 

 were far from thole which grew in my garden; I then 

 pruned them a little, and gave them reft fof that year. 



Next year I gave them two weedings, and there was a 

 piece of ground of about a quarter of an acre, which I 

 forgot to weed at all; and this forgetfulncfs taught mf, 

 tliat thefe plants which had not been weedeil, grew equal- 

 ly well with thofe which were fully weeded, and many 

 of them excelled them; from which I learned, that the 

 more you want to extirpate weeds, and drefs any fpot of 

 ground which you want to turn into woods, or torcfts, 

 the more you cheat yourlelf ; efpecially in weeding trees 



C g 3 twice 



