Thk Elm. 



a person so lazy as not to perforin tliree weedings in the 

 space of half a day. Elm trees, from the nurseries, 

 must be dear. The work of raising layers is tedious ; 

 a monstrous space is required to raise many thou- 

 sands. It is impossible for a nursery-man to raise 

 them in this way, and to produce good plants, under four 

 or five pounds a thousand. Stickers, he may, indeed, find 

 enough ; but they must be dug up; they must be brought 

 from some distance; they must be trimmed, head and root, 

 before he can put them into the nursery : after that they 

 must be cut down, and have a year's growth after that, 

 even in the nursery, before they can be put out into plan- 

 tations; and after all they are poor scrubby things, with an 

 imperfect and half- rotten root; and though they generally 

 will grow, it is next to impossible that they should ever 

 make a fine tree. As to the layers, they are produced by fix- 

 ing down a large branch upon the ground, and laying earth 

 upon the stems of the smaller branches. It is two years 

 before they get roots sufficient to suffer them to be removed ; 

 they are then put into a nursery in rows: there they are 

 cut dow^n, and must have the growth of a year or two before 

 they can be finally planted out. 



240. THE WITCH ELM.— This is the only other Elm 

 that we have which is of any importance; Miller calls it 

 the Uhius Campestris, or common ruff or broad-leaved 

 Witch Elm. The propagation of this is in all respects like 

 the former. In some parts of the kingdom it is preferred 

 to the first, for its timber; and as Miller himself confesses 

 that some people raise this Elm from seeds, it is impossible, 

 one would think, to find an apology for the bungling, the 

 tardy, the expensive practice, of raising the plants from 

 suckers or layers. 



