£6 



A DISCOURSE 



so as the wound may best apply to the earth. The heads or tops I advise 

 you to let alone till after the most penetrating colds be passed, and then 

 about February to take them off, and shape them as you please, as the 

 skilful gardeners can direct you, or as it is described graphically in INIons. 

 de la Quinteny's Complete Gardener and his industrious epitomizers. 

 Now, the earth in which you thus plant your fruit-trees, will require 

 four annual stirrings ; namely, at the approach of March, a spade-bit 

 deep, covering it with some mungy stuff, heaps of grass or weeds, to 

 protect it from the parching sun ; in ISIay following, after a gentle 

 rain, stu' again, but not so deep as to molest the subnascent weeds ; 

 again in the month of July ; and lastly in October, after the same me- 

 thod you are taught in March. 



This, for standards planted out for good and all. The nursery re- 

 quires a busier process, as it is excellently described by squire Cotton in 

 that late incomparable Manual published by that worthy person. Briefly 

 thus : — Three weeks before midsummer lay some green fern about the 

 ranks, after the ground is laboured, to defend it from the heats ; in which 

 work, care must be also had not to offend the tender roots ; therefore you 

 shall stir it deeper in the middle of the lines or interstices ; and when win- 

 ter comes, bury the ferns in the place, by making little trenches, or ra- 

 ther taking away some of the earth you shouldered up, when the stocks 

 were first drawn out of the seminary and planted in those rows ; yet so as 

 to leave it somewhat higher than the area, to secure them from the frosts. 

 In March following stir your nursery again, chopping and mincing in the 

 fern, and mingling it with the loosened mould which you took from the 

 imps when you fkst applied the fern ; then back them up again as before. 

 Repeat this three or four years successively, till your stocks are fit to gTaff 

 on. To an orchard thus planted, spring and autumnal stirring of the 

 mould is of incredible advantage ; and even during the hottest summer 

 months, carefully to abate the weeds, (but not to dig above a quarter of a 

 spit deep, for fear of exposing the plants to the sun, unless it be after 

 plentiful showers,) is very necessary. 



" In the year 1658, Mr. Evelyn published a translation of Mons. de la Quinteny's Com- 

 plete French Gardener. It has gone through several editionsj and is a work of considerable 

 merit. 



