The Hazel. 



ground, which is intended to be the coppice, being sowed 

 over the ground like wheat or barley, only more thinly, of 

 course ; and this would do very well, as it would in the case 

 of many other trees, if there were any magic spell to keep 

 the weeds from coming ; but the nut-plant is a very tender 

 plant when young, as tender as a radish, and is presently 

 covered over by weeds; and perhaps by sowing a whole 

 field of ten acres, you would not obtain ten trees. 



287. Plantations must, therefore, be made from plants 

 raised by sowing the seed. The manner of sowing the seed, 

 and the time of sowing it, are, and for the same reasons, 

 precisely those mentioned in the case of the Beech nut. 

 The covering is to be of the same thickness, but the beds 

 should be kept clear of weeds with still greater care ; and, 

 in pulling out the weeds, greater care should be taken not 

 to disturb the plants, which, if thus managed, and watered 

 now and then lightly in the evening in very dry weather, 

 will be from four to seven inches high in the month of 

 October, 



288. They will come out of the seed-bed with a very 

 bushy root, which will merely want tipping with a sharp 

 knife ; and then the plants are to be sorted, putting the 

 strong ones by themselves and the weak ones by them- 

 selves, for the reasons before mentioned. 



289. The distances in the plantation should, I think, be 

 those of rows of five feet apart, the plants five feet apart in 

 the row; the plants of one row coming opposite to the mid- 

 dle of the intervals in the other row. If the ground were 

 very good, the distances might be still greater; for the Hazel 

 stem spreads very widely, and soon fills up a great space. 

 As to the cultivation of the ground, the cutting down of 



