124 TREATISE ON THE CULTURE AND 



plump and good*. Observe not to put them into the oven 

 when too hot, as it will make them shrivel : And those for 

 sowing must not be dried in this manner, as the heat of the 

 oven would kill the germ. In a fine warm season, I have seen 

 them ripen as well and grow nearly to as large a size as foreign 

 ones, when the trees were healthy ; but in a middhng season 

 they will do very well for sowing, or for fatting pigs and poul- 

 try. Be careful to preserve them from rats and mice, other- 

 wise they will soon destroy vast quantities of them. 



They may be sown in beds of light earth in the month of 

 November, if it be a dry autumn, drawing the drills about nine 

 inches apart, and about three deep. Plant the nuts about an 

 inch apart in the rows, with the points upwards, as bulbous 

 roots are planted; then cover them with mould, and pat it down 

 with the back of your rake. The beds should be four or five 

 feet wide, and a little raised towards the middle to carry off the 

 water. There should be alleys between the beds, about eight- 

 een inches wide, and about two or three inches deep ; these 

 will receive and carry off the rain-water, which otherwise would 

 be apt to rot the nuts. Thus, a five-foot bed will admit of six 

 rows and a small edging next the alley. If you find the mice be- 

 gin to attack them, the beds should be completely covered over 

 with slates, flat stones, or bricks, till the nuts begin to spring; 

 they must then be taken off. If it be a hard winter, it will be ne- 

 cessary, before the stones or tiles are put on, to cover the beds 

 with some rotten dung, rotten leaves, or old tan, to preserve the 

 nuts from the frost. If it be a mild winter, and the nuts have 

 been sown in autumn, they will begin to vegetate before Christ- 

 mas ; but if the autumn be wet, I would advise not to sow 

 them till some time in February, or the beginning of March. 

 By the nuts being sown in rows, you will have room to hoe be- 

 twixt the rows, and be able to keep them clear of weeds, which 

 you could not so easily do if they were sown broadcast. If it 

 should prove a very dry summer, it will be necessary to give 

 them a good watering once or twice a week, till the plants be- 

 gin to get strength. If they be well managed, by the end of 

 October, or in the following spring, you may transplant them 

 into beds, in rows about a foot apart, and at the distance of four 

 inches in the row, where they may remain for two years longer ; 



* In America, particularly, chesnuts become very much shrivelled in 

 about two months after they are gathered. The method here described, will 

 effectually prevent this. Chesnuts may, by this method, be kept good, fresh, 

 and full-skinned, all the year round, and this, too, without any expence, worth 

 speaking of, and with very little trouble. The same observations apply to all 

 sorts of nuts. 



