BOOK V. vr. 8-10 



sprinkled from time to time rather than soaked, and 

 when the plantshave growth three feet highjthey should 

 be transferred to another nursery-bed, and that they 

 may not strike their roots too deep (for this after- 

 wards involves much labour in lifting them when we 

 are going to transfer them to another nursery-bed), 

 we shall have to dig not very large plant-holes a foot 

 and a half apart. Next the roots, if they are short, 

 will have to be bent as it were into a knot, or, if they 

 are too long, into a circle resembling a crown and, 

 after being smeared with ox-dung, they must be 

 lowered into small plant-holes and carefully trodden 

 down all round. The plants, too, which are 9 

 gathered on their stocks " can be set out in the 

 same manner, and this is essential in the case of the 

 Atinian elm which is not raised from seed. It is 

 better to set this kind of elm in the autumn rather 

 than in the spring, and its small branches are twisted 

 little by little by hand, since in its first two years it 

 dreads the blow of an iron implement. Finally, in 

 its third year it is scraped with a sharp pruning- 

 hook, and when it is fit for transplantation (that is, 

 from the season of autumn, when the ground has been 

 thoroughly soaked with rain, until the spring, before 

 the root of the elm is likely to lose its bark while 

 being removed from the soil), then is the proper time 

 for planting it. Next plant-holes measuring three 10 

 feet each way must be made if the soil is loose, 

 but, if it is dense, furrows of the same depth and 

 width must be prepared to receive the trees. But also 

 in a soil which is exposed to dew and mist the elms 

 must be planted in such a way that their branches 

 may be directed towards the east and west, in 

 order that the middle of the trees, to which the 



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