THE BEECH, 281 
young plants as they rise, and most so if the crop is laid 
down in rainy. weather. One bushel of good seed should 
extend over forty yards of a bed four feet wide. After sow- 
ing the seeds regularly, they are readily fixed in their places 
by drawing a light roller over them. The cuffing should 
then be drawn on, covering the seeds half an inch to an inch 
deep. Where the cuffing is not a sufficient cover, additional 
soil should be cast on with a spade from the alleys, where 
such is required. The beds should be left without any 
further raking or polish till the seeds are just about to 
emerge from the ground; then, in a dry day, a careful hand 
should go over the beds with a rake, and smooth and equalize 
the surface. This will occasion the soil to be loose and pul- 
verized at the time that is most required, and at same time 
have the effect of a weeding, by destroying the small seed- 
ling weeds. A few days thereafter, the crop is up, and gene- 
rally has a very interesting display of cotyledons; but so 
sensitive are the young plants at this stage to the slightest 
touch of frost, that some question whether the beech tree is 
really a native of Britain. A slight cover of straw, or fern, 
or twigs of spruce, fir, or other evergreens, stuck into the 
beds, close enough to shelter and shade the young crop, is the 
easiest means of affording protection, which may be removed 
about midsummer. 
One-year’s seedling plants generally range from five to 
eight inches high, and may be transplanted the following 
spring. Or, if the plants are not too close in the seed-beds, 
they may be transplanted into nursery lines after the growth 
of two summers. Generally the seedlings of one year make 
the best plants for hedges, becoming most branchy near the 
surface of the ground, when transplanted at that age; and for 
forest planting, those removed at the age of two years are, in 
figure, best adapted for that purpose. The nursery lines 
should be about a foot or fourteen inches apart, and the plants 
in the lines about four or five inches asunder. The plants 
should seldom remain more than two years in the nursery 
lines without being disturbed, as their roots are apt to get 
