The Hazel, 



of chalk. Ill the north of Haiii[)shirc are the Ihiest coppices 

 I have ever seen of Hazel : there, on the sides or on the tops 

 of some of the bleakest hills in England, you see innumera- 

 ble coppices of this wood, and generally very fine. The 

 Hazel splits freely, and is, therefoi:e, peculiarly calculated 

 for hurdles and hoops; and, in the country last-mentioned, 

 hurdles are made of split rods in the neatest manner. 



284. The seed of the Hazel is the nut, so well known to 

 every body in England. Some years these nuts are very 

 scarce, but in other years they are altogether as abundant. 

 In 1826, at the great fair of Weyhill, which takes place in 

 October, it was supposed that there were more sacks of nuts 

 (each holding four bushels) than there were at the same 

 fair, pockets of hops, though from that fair the whole of the 

 West of England is supplied with hops. In such a year^ 

 therefore, the nuts, when ripe, can be obtained at the ex- 

 pense of about twenty shillings a sack, when taken out of 

 the green husks that cover them. A part of these will 

 always prove bad, and will not grow ; bnt, supposing a 

 fourth part to be of this description, three bushels contain 

 a prodigious number of nuts. 



285. When you have the nuts collected, they ought, like 

 the Beech nuts and Chesnuts, to be laid in the sun till per- 

 fectly dry ; and then they ought to be put into dry sand, in 

 the manner directed for the Beech nuts and the Chesnuts^ 

 to which the reader will be pleased to turn back. You 

 ought to move them once every month, to see whether they 

 have become damp ; and if so, they ought to be put in a 

 dryer place. The greatest care must be taken to preserve 

 them, for they are very apt to spoil. 



286. As to the SOWING, they might be sowed in ploughed 



