F O R E S T - T R E E S. 113 



If the weather is inciiil and mild, no fartlier care is nccciTary ; 

 but if dry and frofty, which is often the cafe at this feafon, 

 throw a little peafe-hanlm over the beds, for three or four weeks, 

 till the feeds begin to vegetate, which will keep the ground mo- 

 derately moift, and defend them from being injured by froft, or 

 deflroyed by birds, who are very fond of them. About this 

 time uncover the beds, keep the ground quite clean, and give 

 them three or four gentle waterings about noon, from the mid- 

 dle to the end of April, the weather being mild and dry ; 

 which repeat more plentifully and frequently from thence till 

 the middle of June, in mild evenings, when they will i-equire no 

 further attention. 



The following March, remove thefe plants from the feminary 

 to the nurfery, fliortening their top-roots, and plant them in 

 lines, two and a half feet diftant, and about ten or twelve inches 

 afunder in the lines ; to ftand two years, if the land is good, 

 and the plants have grown freely ; but in poor thin foil, Vvdiere 

 their progrefs has been fm.all, they may continue three years ; 

 in which cafe, after the fecond year's growth, cut over fuch of 

 them as are leaf!: thriving or crooked, clofe by the ground, in 

 March, which will give them flraighter and more vigorous 

 flioots. 



'Those taken from the roots of old trees, or feedlings grub- 

 bed up from the woods, cannot have fo good roots or free fhoots 

 as plants raifed in a clean well cultivated nurfery-bed, and there- 

 fore will of courfe require more time and attention to make 

 them equally good trees : For this purpofe, having procured the 

 plants with all the roots poiTible, fliorten fuch of them as incline 

 to run downward ; cut away fuch as are broken or brui fed, 



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