S64 TREES. 



Lastly, it is one of the easiest plants to propagate. It bears ber- 

 ries in abundance. These, if planted in autumn as soon as they 

 are ripe (or even in the ensuing spring), will germinate in the spring, 

 and if the soil is good, give plants from a foot to twenty inches high 

 the first year — which are large enough for transplanting, the next 

 spring following. The seeds of the hawthorn do not vegetate till 

 the second year, and the plants properly require to be transplanted 

 once in the nurseries, and to be three years old,, before they are fit 

 for making hedges. Here is at once a most obvious and important 

 saving of time and labor. 



It is but a simple matter to raise buckthorn plants. You begin 

 by gathering the seeds as soon as they aite ripei, say by the middle 

 of October.* Each berry contains four seeds, covered vrith a thm 

 black pulp. Place them in a box or tub ; mash the pulp by beat- 

 ing the berries moderately with a light wooden pounder. Then put 

 them in a sieve, pour some water over them, rub the seeds through, 

 and throw away the skin and pulp. Two or three rubbings apd 

 washings will give you cleap seed. ^Let it then be dried, and it is 

 ready for sowing. ,^ • • 



Next, choose a good ti||P^ deep garden soil Dig it thoroughly, 

 and give Jt a good dressing' of manure. Open a drill with th^ hoe, 

 exaeljy as you would for planting peas, and scatter the seed of the 

 buckthorn in it, at an average' of two or three inches apart. Cover 

 them about an inch and a half deep. The rows or drills may, if 

 you are about to raise a large crop, be put three feet apart, so that 

 the horse cultivator may be used to Ipeep the ground in order. 



In the spring the young plants ■vyill make their appearance plen- 

 tifully. All that they afterwards require is a thorough weeding, and 

 a dressing with a hoe as soon as they are all a couple of inches high, 

 and a little attention afterwards to keep the ground mellow and free 

 from weeds. One yeaj's growth in strong land, or two in that of 

 tolerably quality, will render them fit for being transplanted into the 

 hedge-rows. 



* The bu«kthorn is pretty largely onltivated for its berries at the vari- 

 ous Shaking Quaker settlements in this State and Nei? England: and seeds 

 may usually ,be procured from them in abundance, and at reasonable prices. 



