SOWING. 



67 



portioned. None of them should be sown earlier 

 than the middle of April, as the young plants are 

 so tender that a very slight frost destroys them. No 

 rule that can be given will be sufficient to direct an 

 inexperienced person as to the thickness of sowing 

 them ; for among them all, but among those of the 

 larch especially, many of the seeds never grow. 

 When the plants appear above ground, they should 

 not perhaps be less than an inch asunder. In some 

 nurseries, we see them confined to less than half of 

 this room ; but the plants are thereby drawn up 

 weak, and greatly injured. 



The ground where firs are sown must be carefully 

 protected from the ravages of birds, not only before 

 the plants are up, but some time after ; for as they 

 carry the lobes of the seeds on their tops, when they 

 newly rise, the birds, in taking the one, pull the 

 radicle up also. 



The mode of sowing the seeds of most other trees, 

 is substantially the same a« what has now been de- 

 scribed, with the exception that few of them require 

 the ground to be so finely raked, or to be treated 

 with so much delicacy, as those of firs. A few cur=- 

 sory remarks, therefore, regarding the time of sow- 

 ing, and one or two other circumstances, will suffice 

 respecting them. 



E 2 



