The Locust. 



August (in diy weather), for the three first years; to keep 

 out grass and weeds. After that^ nothing will grow under 

 the shade, so complete will it be. 



365. We are going upon the supposition that the planter 

 rents the Imid. A very disadvantageous supposition ; but, 

 let us take it ; supposing him to have a lease of twenty-one 

 years. He cleans his ground well and then, in the winter, 

 this very winter, he has it trenched in the manner de- 

 scribed in this work, keeping the good soil at the top, and 

 especially if there be gravel or clay at the bottom : but, in 

 short, trenching i?i the manner there described. I always 

 planted in ^pn7; but, it is late ; and I would advise the 

 supposed planter to do it earlier. I suppose him to have 

 plants of the middle size. In his twenty-one years, he will 

 have three (at least) cuttings of poles ; for, when he has 

 cut his first crop, up springs another; and he will now, at 

 this second cutting, gettico ov more jjolesfi'om each plant. He 

 will have more at the third cutting. How much is a sixteen 

 feet hop-pole worth, that does not require shaving, and that 

 will last forty years? Aw Ash pole, when shaved, will last 

 three years, and, a part of it, four years; but, a bit must come 

 off* at the bottom of it in each of the two last years, which 

 makes it but short; and, by this time, it is wholly unfit to 

 stand against the wind, when loaded with the binds and leaves 

 and hops. One Locust pole is, then, worth more than ten Jsh 

 poles, because there is ieji times as much cost in carriage, and 

 ten times, nay, thirty times, as much cost in pointing; besides 

 the falling off in length in the Ash polo, during the two last 

 years of its service. The carriage is, perhaps, upon an average, 

 one-third part of the cost of the pole. Taking all these things 

 into consideration, one Locust pole must be worth nearly 

 a score of Ash poles of the same size and length. What is 



