THE SCOTS GARDENER 



your avenues, parks, groves, &c. which will be in 

 three years, if these rules be observed. But if you 

 think them yet too small for setting out, you must 

 transplant them at a wider distance, and at every 

 removal top all their roots with a sharp knife, and 

 thin the side-boughes for lightening the head ; but 

 do not prune all up, as is the custom of ignorants, 

 whose trees are so long, small and top-heavy, that 

 they cannot stand. But of pruning more hereafter. 

 If you neglect this transplanting and pruning the 

 top-root, while young, your essayes to do it when 

 old will prove ineffectual, nor will they ever be 

 worth the while. 



All the time that your trees remain in the nur ser ie, 

 and at least the first and second year thereafter, 

 be careful to cleanse them from weeds and suckers, 

 by delving, hawing, &c. The advantage here will 

 soon counter-balance the cost. 



Choice your seeds from the high, streight, young, 

 and well- thriving trees ; and the fairest, weyghtiest 

 and brightest thereon ; for it is observed, that the 

 seeds of hollow trees (i.e. trees whose pith is coii- 

 sum'd) do not fill well, or come to perfection, as 

 Langf ord sayes of pears, concluding that the kir- 

 nells of fruits depend much upon the pith. And 



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