* 



OF FOREST-TREES. 269 



being percolated through a quantity of earth, will carry the nitrous vir- CHAP. V. 

 tue of the soil with it : by no means, therefore, water at the stem, be- ^-""V"^ 

 cause it washes the mould from the roots, comes too crude, and endan- 

 gers their rotting. 



But, for the cooling and refreshing tree roots, the congesting of rotten 

 litter, sprinkled over with fine earth, is good ; or place potsherds, flints, 

 or pebbles near the foot of the stem ; for so the poet : 



Aut lapidem bibulura, aut squallentes infode conchas : 

 Inter enim labentur aquae, tenuisque subibit 



Halitus. GEORG. ii. 



Lime-stones, or squalid shells, that may the rain. 

 Vapours, and gliding moisture entertain. 



But remember you remove them after a competent time, else the vermine, 

 snails, and insects, which they produce and shelter, will gnaw and greatly 

 injure, the bark ; and therefore to lay a coat of moist rotten litter witli 

 a little earth upon it, wiU preserve it moist in summer and warm in 

 winter, enriching the showers and dews that strain through it. 



Young plants will be strangled with corn, oats, peas, or hemp, or any 

 rankly growing grain, if a competent circle and distance be not left, as 

 of near a yard or so off the stem. This is a useful remark ; but whether 

 the setting or sowing of beans near trees makes them thrive the more, 

 -as Theophrastus writes, (I suppose he means fruit-trees,) I leave to ex- 

 perience. 



Cut no trees (especially having an eminent pith in them, being young 

 and tender too) when either heat or cold are in extremes, nor in very ' 

 wet and snowy weather ; and in this work it is profitable to discharge 

 aU trees of unthriving, broken, wind-shaken browse, and such as our 

 law terms cablicia, and to take them off to the quick, 



Ne pars sincera trahatur. 



And for evergreens, especially such as are tender, prune them not 

 after planting, till they do radicate ; that is, by some little fresh shoot 

 discover that they have taken root. 



Cut not off the top of the leading twig or shoot (unless very crooked, 

 and then at the next erect bud) when you transplant timber-trees, but 

 Volume II. Mm 



