The Bep:ch. 



yon ; but if you be, by any accident^ compelled to do this, 

 then you ought to try the soundness of your nuts before 

 you put them into sand; otherwise you can have no de- 

 pendence upon them. This work of trying is performed in 

 this mnnner : you put the nuts into a tub, or some vessel, 

 partly filled with clear water; and all that you find to swim 

 are defective to an extent that will prevent them from 

 growing. It is not certain that all that sink will grow; 

 but they generally will, except in cases where they have 

 been laid in heaps and h^ive fermented ; for, that will effec- 

 tually prevent their growing, though they w^ill, if still 

 moist, sink in w^ater. The observations and instruction?, 

 contained in this paragraph, apply to chesnuts, walnuts, 

 hickory nuts, and nuts of all kinds, and also to acorns. 



148. The SOWING of Beech-nuts is performed in pre- 

 cisely the same manner as that of Ash-seeds, for which see 

 paragraph 109 and onw^ards. But the Beech-nuts may, and 

 perhaps they ought to be, sown half an inch deeper. As to 

 the time of sowing, it ought not to be too early ; for, if they 

 lie long in the ground before they begin to spring up, they 

 are food for mice all the while ; and, even if sown in March, 

 you must be careful to kill these depredators if they 

 attack the nuts ; for, if they once get into your beds, they 

 make dreadful havock. 



149. The MANAGEMENT of the seed-beds, the trans- 

 planting of the seedlings into a nursery, the management of 

 them there, the final placing of them in plantations, are 

 all the same as those recommended in the case of the Ash, 

 But, the Beech is never planted as underwood, it being 

 unfit for poles, hoops, stakes, hurdles, or tool-handles. So 

 that the plantations ought never to be made very thick, as 

 the wood is of little use till it attain a considerable size. 



