NURSERY AND PLANTING. 



83 



Elm-seed may be sown as soon as collected from the trees, 

 but we would rather advise saving it till March or April, or 

 making three sowings : one in June, when the seed is gathered, 

 one in March, and a third in April. The ground for the seed- 

 beds should be rather rich, having been under a slight crop 

 the preceding season ; and if not manured for it, it should be 

 done previously to sowing the elm-seed. As this seed does 

 not require to be deeply covered, it is necessary to have the 

 ground finely dug and raked before the beds are formed, which 

 should be four feet in breadth, and the seed covered to the 

 depth of half an inch. Sometimes the crop of summer-sown 

 elms is destroyed in winter, when the season has been dry and 

 the plants weak, and in such cases they are hable to be thrown 

 out of the ground by the frost. Sometimes the spring crop is 

 destroyed, if sown too early and severe fi'osts occur just as 

 the tender plants are coming up, but by sowing at the three 

 stated periods above recommended, we have three chances of 

 obtaining a crop. It is advisable to sow elm-seed rather thin, 

 as the seeds are in general good ; and as it is better that the 

 plants should remain two seasons in the seed-bed previously to 

 their being planted out into nursery-lines, they will have a 

 chance of attaining greater strength than if they were too much 

 crowded in the seed-bed. 



The after-management of elms, while in the nursery, differs 

 not from that of other trees already noticed. They may be 

 planted permanently out on trenched or prepared land, when 

 four years old from seed; or, if in unprepared ground, they 

 should be allowed one or two years longer. All the species of 

 elm succeed, though planted of a large size ; although, like 

 most other trees, they prosper much better when planted be- 

 fore they attain too great an age. 



Of this genus there are seventeen species enumerated in 

 the Hortus Britannicus, six of which are indigenous to this 

 country, five of North America, one of China, two of Siberia, 

 one of Hungary, and two undetermined. The British species 

 are the most valuable with us, although there are several of 

 the North American ones which would, in all probability, be 

 worth the notice of the planter ; of the remainder, their merits, 

 as timber-trees, are of no account. Sucli of this family, of 



