88 



rUllCHASING PLANTS. 



This species is more injured by being forced in the 

 nursery than perhaps any other, and Scots firs that 

 are large in proportion to their age, should on no 

 account be selected, if we wish our plantations to 

 flourish. 



In general we will find, that, as the strength of 

 the land, and other circumstances which affect ve- 

 getation, are proportioned to the crop in one part of 

 a nursery, so will they be in all the other parts of 

 it, at least this will be the case where any regard is 

 had to consistency. We may, therefore, make any one 

 kind of plants a standard for judging of the qualifi- 

 cations of all the other kinds raised under the same 

 management. Taking, then, one-year old larches, 

 or two-year old Scots firs in the seed-bed, as this 

 standard, if we find them of a size that bespeaks 

 them hardy, we may safely conclude, in general, 

 that all the other kinds in the same nursery are 

 proportionally so, and vice versa. Hence the inex- 

 perienced purchaser may judge with tolerable accu- 

 racy of the hardiness of every kind of plants in any 

 nursery where there are Scots firs and larches, or 

 either of them^ of the respective ages above men- 

 tioned, by attending to what is said in the paragraph 

 immediately preceding. 



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