18 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. have been of a much greater altitude, and farther spreading, had it not 

 "^""^f^"**^ continually been kept shorn : but what is most remarkable, is the little 

 time since it was planted, being then hardly ten years, and then it was 

 brought out of the common, slender bush of about two feet high. 

 But I have experimented a proportionable improvement in my own gar- 

 den, where I do mingle them with Cypress ; and they would perfectly 



will not bear too much heat. In these beds they should remain till the second autumn, 

 when you must prepare some beds to transplant them into, which should also be of light, 

 fresh, undunged soil ; and having well dug and cleansed the ground from all noxious weeds 

 and roots, you should make it level ; and then in the beginning of October, which is the 

 proper season for removing these plants, raise up the young plants with a trowel, preserv- 

 ing as much earth as possible to their roots, and plant them into beds about five or six 

 inches asunder each way, giving them some water to settle the earth to their roots; and 

 if it should prove very dry weather, you may lay a little mulch upon the surface of the 

 ground round their roots, which will be of great service to tlie plants : but as many of the 

 seeds will be yet left in the ground where they were sown, so the beds should not be dis- 

 turbed too much in taking up the plants ; for I have known a bed sown with these berries, 

 which has supplied plants for three years drawing, some of the berries having lain so long 

 in the ground before they sprouted ; therefore the surface of the beds should be kept level, 

 and constantly clean from weeds. 



The plants may remain two years in the new beds, observing to keep them clear from 

 weeds ; in the spring you should stir the ground gently between them, that their roots 

 may strike into it with greater ease ; after which time they should be transplanted, either 

 into a nursery, at the distance of three feet row frojQ row, and eighteen inches asunder in 

 the rows, or into the places where they are to remain for good. The best season to trans- 

 plant them (as I before observed) is the beginning of October, when you should take 

 them up carefully, preserving a ball of earth to their roots ; and when planted, the surface 

 round their roots should be mulched ; all which, if carefully attended to, as also observing 

 to refresh them with water in very dry weather, until they have taken new root, will pre- 

 serve them from the danger of not growing ; and, being extremely hardy in respect to 

 cold, they will defy the severest of our winters, provided they are not planted in a moist 

 or rich soil. 



In order to haVe these trees aspire in height, their under-branches should be taken off, 

 especially where they are inclined to grow strong, but they must not be kept too closely 

 pruned, which would retard their growth ; for all these evergreen trees do more or 

 less abound with a resinous juice, which in hot weather is very apt to flow out from such 

 places as are wounded j so that it will not be advisable to take off too many branches at 

 once, which would make so many wounds, from which their sap in hot weather would flow 

 in such plenty, as to render the trees weak and unhealthy. 



The Virginian Cedar grows to a prodigious height, and affords excellent timber for 

 many uses ; but with us there are very few which are above thirty-five or forty feet high, 

 though there can be no doubt of their growing larger ; for they thrive very fast after the 



