144 



ARTIFICIAL COVEHS. 



admiration, by first sowing the seeds in a nursery 

 ground, and then setting out the plants at two years 

 old, during the autumn ; gorse is a plant which makes 

 a prodigious shoot very late in the year, it consequently 

 becomes settled and rooted in the soil before winter 

 sets in, and the dry weather in the spring and summer 

 does not materially injure it, as it would if planted out 

 in March or April. When a furze cover is established, 

 there is still almost as much labour and skill required 

 to keep it constantly in perfection and sufficiently 

 strong to hold a fox, as there was to produce it. To 

 achieve this, care should be taken to cut about a fifth 

 each year, after it begins to get hollow and weak, until 

 the whole has undergone the operation, when, after a 

 couple of years holiday, you may recommence at No. 

 one ; in speaking of cutting, the system of burning is 

 highly to be recommended for several reasons, in the 

 first place the fagots will hardly pay for tying up, and 

 in the next place, the operation renders the ground 

 perfectly clear from all weeds, which are totally eradi- 

 cated by the fire ; not so the gorse, the roots of which 

 extend too far into the ground to be injured by the 

 heat^ moreover the ashes form a most excellent manure 

 to the new shoots, and the long black stumps which 

 should not be cut off" until two years have expired, 

 are a most excellent preventive against persons either 

 riding or walking upon the young buds and destroying 

 them. When the aid of flames is resorted to, the cover 

 should be cut out in quarters, or the whole may be inad- 

 vertently set on fire at once, and the day chosen for 

 the conflagration should be one on which the wind 

 blows from a favourable point ; it is also to be highly 



