162 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK ir. remedy so facile as the burning tliem off with small wisps of dry 

 '"^^^'''^'^ straw, which in a moment rids you. 



Rooks do in time, by pinching off the buds and tops of trees for their 

 nests, cause many trees and groves to decay. Their dung propagates 

 nettles and weeds, and chokes young seedlings. They are to be shot, 

 and their nests demolished. The bullfinch and titmouse also eat off 

 and spoil the buds of fruit-trees ; these are prevented by clappers, or 

 caught in the wire mouse-trap with teeth, after being baited with a piece 

 of rusty bacon ; also with lime-twigs. But if cattle break in before the 

 tune, conclamatum est, especially goats, whose mouths and breath is so 

 poisonous to trees, that they never thrive well after ; and Varro affirms, 

 if they but lick the Olive-trees, they become immediately barren °. And 

 now we have mentioned barrenness, we do not reckon trees to be sterile, 

 which do not yield a fruitful burden constantly every year (as Juniper 

 and some Annotines do) no more than of pregnant women ; whilst that 

 is to be accounted a fruitful tree which yields its product every second 

 or third year, as the Oak and most foresters do ; no more may we con- 

 clude that any tree or vegetable is destitute of seeds, because we see 

 them not so perspicuously with our naked eyes, by reason of their exi- 

 lity, as with the nicest examination of the microscope. 



Another touch at the winds ; for though they cannot properly be said 

 to be infirmities of trees, yet they are amongst the principal causes that 

 , render trees infii'm. I know no surer protection against them, than, as 

 we said, to shelter and stake the trees whilst they are young, till they 

 have well-established roots ; and with this caution, that in case any 

 goodly tree (which you would desire especially to preserve and redress) 

 chance to be prostrated by some impetuous and extraordinary storm, you 

 be not over-hasty to carry him aAvay, or despair of him. First, then, let 

 me persuade you to poU him close, and so let him lie some time ; for by 

 this means many vast trees have raised themselves by the vigour only of 



* The ancients considered the teeth of goats as particularly injurious to Vines. For which 

 reason that animal was sacrificed to Bacchus : 



Non aliam ob culpam Baccho caper omnibus aris 

 Cseditur. virg. 



