General Instructions. 



and grass do trees no barm; for tliey do young trees more 

 harm, perhaps, than they do to any other thing. Yet, we 

 every where see gentlemen leave the young trees to take 

 what care of themselves they can. They are planted, and 

 are left to contend single-handed against all the battalions 

 of grass of every sort, docks, thistles, dandelions, nettles, and 

 all those weeds, any one plant of which sucks out more of 

 the virtue of the ground than any young tree in the world ; 

 and if the winter did not come in mere charity, to cut them 

 down, the trees would never surpass them in height. 

 Nothing can be more miserable than to see a plantation of 

 young trees thus infested. The weeds draw out all the 

 moisture of the ground in dry weather ; they shade the 

 stems of the trees, which is a very great injury; the creep- 

 ing kinds crawl up them, hamper their leaves and twigs, 

 and, not unfrequently, you see the trees completely stifled 

 by them. None but the hardy kinds will endure treatment 

 like this for any length of time. They die, in short, in 

 great proportion, and those which survive are in a mise- 

 rably stunted state for many years, unless they have the 

 good luck to beat the weeds, and to get the soil for their 

 own use. 



81. Young trees, therefore, should be kept clean: a 

 plantation ought to be kept as clean as a hop-garden; and, 

 like that of the hop-garden, ought to be dug with a fork 

 every winter. It is best not to dig too early; because the 

 ground runs together in consequence of the quantity of the 

 wet that foils upon it before the spring; late in February, 

 or early in March, is time enough to dig it. The winds in 

 March dry it through and through, and then the rains in 

 Al)ril and May make it fine and light all the summer; easy 

 to hoe, and the weeds easily kept down. 



