HAWTHORN. 



155 



in that point, and if the earth of your bed is not light and 

 dry enough for this purpose, you must carry as much 

 as will cover the seeds from some dry compost heap, or 

 some quarter of the garden, where it can be found in a 

 suitable condition. 



" On examining your haws, if you find the earth in 

 which they are mixed any way clogged with too much 

 moisture, so that the parts and seeds would not separate 

 freely in the act of sowing ; mix therewith a sufficient 

 quantity of slaked lime, or wood-ashes, to accomplish that 

 end. 



" Having every thing in readiness, and your ground well 

 dug, and raked effectually as you proceeded in the digging ^ still 

 presuming that it is in the best possible state of prepara- 

 tion, lay it out into four feet wide beds, leaving twelve or 

 fourteen inches of an alley between each, and with the 

 back of the rake push off into these alleys about three 

 quarters of an inch of the fine raked surface of the beds, 

 one half of each bed to the one side, and the other to the 

 opposite ; this done, sow your haws thereon, earth and all, 

 as they had lain, so thick that you may expect a thousand 

 plants at least, after every reasonable allowance for faulty 

 or imperfect seeds, (there being many of these,) on every 

 three or four yards of your beds ; — I have often had that 

 number on as many feet ; — ^then with a spade or shovel cast 

 the earth out of the alleys evenly over the beds, covering 

 the seeds not more than three quarters of an inch deep, and 

 not more than half an inch, if the ©arth be any way stiff ; 

 after which rake the tops of the beds very lightly^ taking 

 care not to disturb the seeds, in order to take off the lumps, 

 and to give a neat appearance to the work." — M'Mahon. 

 If any stiffness of the ground is perceived, the beds should 

 have frequent and gentle waterings ; and great care will be 

 necessary to keep the beds free from weeds from the mo- 

 ment the plants appear above ground till they are fit to be 

 planted in hedge-rows, and have arrived at such a size that 

 weeds cannot materially injure them. 



Mr. Kirk, of Brandywine, has been successful in making 

 the seeds of the American thorn vegetate, by washing them 

 clean, putting them in hot water to swell them, and ex 

 posing the water in which ^they were immersed to be 

 frozen and thawed several times. Dr. Mease, of Philadel- 

 phia, says, " The haws of the Washington thorn, CraicEgus 

 cordata^ require to be buried one winter before they sprout, 

 and they should be put into the ground the same autumn 



