The Tulip Tree. 



ing in the nursery. The tree being cut down nearly to the 

 ground^ sends out numerous shoots from the bottom. 

 When these grow up to eight, ten or twelve feet high, they 

 are pulled down, a chop is given to each, pretty near to the 

 stump, and that enables you to lay the whole branch or 

 bough upon the ground, to which it is firmly fastened by a 

 peg, having a hook at the top of it. Then the little side- 

 shoots of this branch are pinned down singly by smaller 

 pegs, each shoot receiving a little cut towards the butt of it, 

 pretty much in the manner that the cut is given to the 

 layers of Carnations; then all the butts of these side-shoots 

 are covered over with earth ; and, being kept moist by 

 'watering or otherwise in the summer, they, in the course 

 of a couple or three years, get roots. They are then cut off 

 from the main shoot, one by one, trimmed up, and planted 

 in a nursery, where they are, I suppose, cut down the next 

 year, in order to obtain a straight shoot, which is to serve as 

 a trunk. 



521. Every reader must at once perceive that a tree 

 never can be obtained in this manner. It is a branch of a 

 tree, and a branch of a tree it must remain, until it be big 

 enough to be called a limb; and then, like every big limb, 

 it will be continually throwing out side-shoots, to form 

 limbs of a secondary size. A fair and straight trunk never 

 does and never can come from it; and, of course, large and 

 clear and beautiful plank never can be produced in this 

 way. Therefore, to have the trees worth having, they 

 must be raised from the seed ; and that seed must be ob- 

 tained from America; for I have no idea that it ever can 

 ripen under an English sun. It is, however, very easily 

 obtained, very light for conveyance, very conveniently 

 preserved, and attended with very little inconvenience in 

 the sowing or the managing. 



