FOREST-TREES. S5 



thick, a foil compofecl fome months at leafh before, of one load 

 of old pafture- earth, one of well-rotted cow-dung, and half a 

 load of fea or fine pit-fand. Some of thefe feeds will probably 

 make their appearance in nine or ten weeks, but much the great- 

 er part of them will lye in the ground till next fpring ; I would 

 therefore advife giving the beds no more water than barely fuffi- 

 cient to cherilh the plants that have appeared, which, for four 

 or five weeks after, Ihould be fcreen'd from the fun during the 

 heat of the day, but which afterwards fliould receive its full in- 

 fluence. 



These circumftances being obferved, no further care is ne- 

 ceifary this year, but clearing the ground of weeds as foon as 

 they appear j and in winter, in violent lafling ftorms, throw 

 double mats over the frame, which muft be regularly taken off 

 on the weather's growing mild. 



In March, the fucceeding year, carefully pick off with your 

 fingers all molTy, hard, and crufled earth, from the bed ; fmooth 

 it again, and fift on a quantity proportioned to that taken a- 

 way, of the fame kind of mould as formerly ; and about the end 

 of April, or beginning of May, if your feeds have been good, 

 the plants will appear in abundance, when they mufl be fre- 

 quently but gently refreflied with water, lightly given as di- 

 reded for the Larch. From this time, till the beginning of 

 Auguft, they ought to be fcreened from the mid-day fim ; but 

 this I would not do by covering the bed with mats, as is com- 

 monly pradlifed, which draws the plants, and renders them ten- 

 der ; but rather do it with part of an old reed fence, or, for 

 want of that, and which indeed is ftill better, nail fome thin 



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