978 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



sharp spades ; rutting or cutting the ground obliquely with their spades, on each side 

 the line at once, and exactly opposite to each other. After this operation has been 

 performed, the plants should be made firm, by a person treading the rows with a foot 

 on each side. These kinds, so tapped, will, in the course of the following season, in 

 consequence of being thus root-pruned, push many more fibres on the upper part of 

 their roots, than they otherwise would have done ; and thus will the plants be better 

 fitted for being transplanted into shallow soils, or indeed into any soil, than they would 

 have been by being allowed to remain in the ground untapped till the time of lifting." 

 (Plant. Kal. 135.) 



7008. Trench-planting is decidedly the best for all plants to be placed in lines ; but more especially for 

 ligneous sorts. Dibbing in is an easier and more rapid mode ; but by trench -planting the fibres are 

 spread out and regularly disposed on each side of the main root ; whereas, bv dibbing, as Sang observes, 

 they are " huddled together into a hole probably not more than an inch and half in diameter." Dibbing, 

 however, may be adopted in the case of such seedling trees as have been robbed of most of their fibrous 

 roots, by being pulled out in thinning beds intended to stand for two years. 



7009. The age at which most of these sorts should be transplanted is one year ; and the soil most desirable 

 for removing them to, is the same as recommended for the seed-bed. The distances between the lines 

 and the plants in the line depend partly on their kinds, but principally on the length of time they are to 

 stand before retransplanting or final removal. The larger-growing broad-leaved sorts, as the chestnuts 

 and walnuts, to stand only one year, should not be nearer than eighteen inches by six inches ; and the 

 oak, ash, beech, &c. not nearer than fourteen inches by three inches ; if to stand for three years, the in- 

 terspaces may be two or three inches more : something depends on the openness of the situation, and a 

 good deal on the soil. The judicious nursery-gardener will consider all the circumstances, and adopt such 

 variations of the ordinary distances as shall produce plants with well ripened shoots, and numerous fibrous 

 roots. 



7010. Pruning, culture, and taking up for final planting. When the plants are to 

 remain two or more years in the nursery lines without removal, dig the ground between 

 the rows in winter. At midsummer cut close off the lower side shoots ; some defer this 

 work till winter ; but, besides the loss of sap avoided by midsummer pruning, the 

 wounds heal the same season. In taking up for final planting, such plants as have been 

 trench-planted must be loosened on the side which was solid at planting ; if they have 

 been in training for several years they should be lifted by throwing out a trench on one 

 side, fully to the depth of the roots, and then putting in the spade on the opposite side, 

 so as to get below all the roots. 



SECT. III. Trees and Shrubs with berried Stones, their Solving and Rearing. 



7011. The principal hardy trees with berried stones are the following : 



Sorbus aucuparia, August 



domestica, November 

 Ilex aquifolium, November 

 Pyrus torminalis, November 



_ aria, September 

 Taxus baccata, November 

 Prunus cerasus, J 



domestica 



, U October. 



Rhamnus frangula, September 



communis, November 

 Laurus nobilis, November 

 Rosa, various species, October 

 Prunus padus, August 



lusitanica, September 



virginiana, August 



spinosa, October 



Hedera helix, April 

 Daphne laureola, June 



mezereon, June 

 Viburnum tinus, June 

 Phillyrea angustifolia, February 

 Mespilus oxyacantha, October 



azarolus, October 



pyracantha, November 



Shrubt. canadensis, August amelanchier, November 



Rhamnus alaternus, October laurocerasus, September | Juniperus communis, October. 



7012. Rotting. The whole of these when gathered, require to be taken to the rotting- 

 ground ; mixed with their bulk of dry sand or ashes, laid in beds of ten inches in thick- 

 ness, and then covered with ten inches of sand, light sandy earth, or ashes. Here some 

 sorts, as the holly, will require to remain two years ; the haw, mountain ash, and yew, 

 one year ; and the other sorts, one winter, or till the following February. During this 

 time the beds of each kind should be uncovered, carefully turned over, and the covering 

 replaced. The advantage of rotting off their exterior covering in heaps rather than in 

 the soil, where they are to germinate, is the saving of ground ; for though some of the 

 holly and haw, for example, will come up the* next or the second season after sowing, 

 yet, by keeping them one or two years in the rot-heap, we are sure all the seeds will ger- 

 minate the same spring in which they are committed to the soil. To the above general 

 remarks, the gean forms an exception ; for if sown immediately after being gathered in 

 July, it will come up the following spring ; but it will keep in the rot-heap a year. When 

 any of these seeds are to be sent to a distance, instead of being carried to the rot-heap, 

 they are spread thin in lofts, dried and packed in barrels; great care must be taken that 

 they are sufficiently dried, otherwise putrescent fermentation will commence, and the ve- 

 getative principle will be destroyed by the heat evolved. 



7013. Sowing. The season is generally February, and the manner by bedding in, as 

 before. The haw, the most important of this class, should be sown in the lightest rich- 

 est land in the nursery ; and if not very rich, some dung may be added. Sow in beds 

 three feet four, or three feet six inches apart ; the seeds should lie within a fourth of an 

 inch of each other, and be rolled with a roller of fifty or sixty pounds' weight, and exactly 

 the breadth of the bed, previously to covering, which should be one inch deep. If the 

 seeds are too moist to admit of drawing a roller over them, beat in the seeds with the 

 back of the spade. This operation of rolling in seeds not only fixes them in their places, 

 so as to admit of applying the covering with greater freedom, but by consolidation is cal- 

 culated to retain moisture, exclude too much air, and thereby promote germination. 

 Holly and yew seeds should be sovrn on rich friable soil, shaded by a wall or by wattled 



