GO 



t:i:: r:i actical gardener. 



patluMod, but this is not advisable, as they are very liable to 

 be injured by the vernal frosts ; and, independently of this 

 risk, nothiniT in point of strength is gained by the plants. 

 As ihe soil for sowing alder-seeds should be rather damp, the 

 youni^ plants arc often liable to be thrown out by frosts during 

 the winter, care, therefore, should be taken when this is likely to 

 occur, to deepen the alleys or footpaths between the beds, in 

 order to allow the superfluous water a free channel for passing 

 otf; and as a farther means of preventing this evil, tanners* 

 bark very much decayed, or rotten saw-dust may be sprinkled 

 over the surface, but if this can be avoided, so much the 

 better, for neither adds to the fertility of the soil, and unless 

 very much decomposed, is evidently injurious to it. 



Alders, when one year old, that is, the plants which were 

 originated from seeds in spring, should be gone over the following 

 sprintr, and all the strongest plants taken carefully up, so as 

 neither to injure themselves nor the remaining crop of weaker 

 seedlings, which are left in the seed-bed to gain strength for 

 another season. Previously to the plants being taken up, the 

 ground should Ix^ got reach', into which they are to be trans- 

 planted out to nurse. In clu>osi ng ground for this purpose, a 

 loose and rather a moist sandy or boggy soil should be pre- 

 ferred. Rut a strong clay, or dry burning gravelly or sandy 

 soil should be invariably rejected, as being alike uncongenial 

 to their welfare. When the ground is j)re})ared, they should 

 be set out at twelve inches between the lines, and four or five 

 between the jilants. For plants of two years' growth, that is, 

 those which were left in the seed-bed one year longer than the 

 above, more room should be allowed them, and they should 

 not be planted closer than fifteen inches between the lines, 

 and six inches from plant to plant in the lines. This latter 

 distance should also be allowed to those one-year old seed- 

 lings which are intended to remain two years in the nursery- 

 lines. The routine of after-culture consists in keeping the 

 ground perfectly clear of weeds, as nothing impoverishes the 

 ground so much as allowing them to grow unmolested, and 

 not only their robbing the plants of their due share of nourish- 

 nirnt, but in cases where this is not strictly attended to, the 

 plants are literally smothered with them. Of this we had last 



