F O R E S T - T II E E S. 175 



fine rich light mould in them, on which place your acorns a- 

 bout four inches afunder, and cover them with two inches more 

 of the fame kind of mould ; place thefe boxes on a moderate 

 hot-bed, of which tanners bark is the beft ; and in ten or twelve 

 days after, when you find the earth beginning to dry, give them 

 a very gentle fprinkling of water, which repeat every fourth or 

 fifth day. In a month after fowing, the plants will begin to ap- 

 pear, when the quantity of water mufl be increafed, how much, 

 or how frequently, the condition of the earth will beft direcft you. 

 In this hot-bed the boxes may remain till the beginning of July, 

 from whence they may be taken, and placed in a fliady Iheltered 

 fituation during the remaining fummer months ; but obferve, 

 before removing them from the hot-bed, that they be gradually 

 inured to bear the open air, by taking off the glalTes in mild or 

 moift weather, when the fun is not fcorching, and late in the 

 evenings, or all night, when the feafon is quite temperate and 

 ferene. On the approach of winter, let the furface of the boxes 

 be cleared of all mufty particles with your fingers, and replaced 

 with a greater proportion of the fineft rich mould ; after which 

 place them under frames till the fucceeding fpring, and only co- 

 ver them with the glaffes in violent rains or hard frofts. 



From the middle of April to the beginning of May, as the 

 weather fooner or later becomes favourable, let thefe boxes be 

 removed to a well-flieltered, but fliady place in the nurfery, and 

 placed on ftones or logs of wood fome inches above the furface 

 of the ground, which not being obferved, is apt to occafion fuch 

 a ftagnation and corruption in the mouldy as frequently to deftroy 

 the whole plants, or at beft to ftunt them beyond recovery. Du- 

 ring the fummer months, let them be regularly refreflied v/itli^ 



