226 OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASES, &c. 



tap-roots near to some of the small side-roots or fibres shoot- 

 ing from them. In the second year after, I headed one half of 

 the plants down, as directed fqr chesnuts, and left the other 

 half to nature. In the first season, those headed down made 

 shoots six feet long and upwards, and completely covered the 

 tops of the old stems, leaving only a faint cicatrix, and had pro- 

 duced new tap-roots upwards of two feet and a half long. One 

 of these trees I left at the Land Revenue Office, for the inspec- 

 tion of the commissioners, and to shew the advantage of trans- 

 planting and heading down young oaks, when done in a proper 

 manner. By this mode of treatment they grow more in one 

 year than in six when raised in the common way. The other 

 half of the plants, that were not headed down, are not one fourth 

 the size of the others. One of the former is now eighteen 

 feet high, and, at six inches from the ground, measures fifteen 

 inches in circumference ; at three feet from the ground, ten 

 inches ; and at six feet, nine inches and a half ; while one of 

 the largest of the latter measures only five feet and a half high, 

 and three inches and three quarters in circumference, at six 

 inches from the ground. This is a convincing proof, that 

 transplanting and heading down oaks is the most successful and 

 advantageous way of treating them ; and by it they are sooner 

 out of danger from cattle, as well as from vermin, which are 

 frequently very injurious to young trees. 



Of raising Chesnuts for Underxvood, 



As the chesnut is the best and most durable wood for stakes, 

 hop-poles, &c. I shall give some directions how to plant them 

 to the best advantage for copse wood. 



For this purpose, the ground should be trenched or plough- 

 ed, and well summer-fallowed. After the fall of the leaf, plant 

 the young trees in the quincunx order, in rows six feet apart, 

 and at the distance of six feet in the rows from plant to plant, 

 if you are forming large plantations, the most expeditious way 

 will be to plant after the plough, treading the earth firmly about 

 the roots of the plants. It v/ill be necessary to form basons 

 round the plants on purpose to mulch them, if it should happen 

 to be a dry season the first summer after planting. It may, 

 perhaps, be a saving of time to put the plants in loosely at first, 

 that you may be able to keep up with the plough, and to return 

 afterwards to tread the mould, and form the basons for mulch- 

 ing. 



When the trees are become fit for poles, every other one 

 may be cut down almost close to the ground, throughout the 

 plantation ; always observing to cut in a sloping manner, and 



