120 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. may be within four or five months, an inch above ground, refreslied and 

 '^y^'^ preserved from the scraping of birds and poultry, comfort the tender 

 seedlings by a second sifting of more fine earth to establish them ; thus 

 keep them clean weeded for the first two years, cleansing the side- 

 boughs ; or, till being of fitting stature to remove into a nursery at wider 

 intervals, and even rows, you may thin and transplant them in the same 



Two or three rows being gi-afted, let an additional hand or two be employed, either 

 in drawing the earth up above the clay, that it may be wholly covered, or digging the 

 ground between the rows, and levelling it, so that nothing of the performed work may 

 appear, except the tops of the grafts, above ground. The danger of frost renders this 

 precaution highly necessary ; for, if it should be delayed a night or two, and sharp frosts 

 should happen, the clay will be apt to fall off; and thus the work will require 

 to be repeated : whereas, when it is lapped warm in the manner directed, there will be 

 no danger of such an accident. 



A good workman, witli the above-mentioned necessary assistance, will graft about 

 a thousand stocks in a day. In the spring, the buds will swell, disclose, and shoot forth 

 nearly as soon as those of the tree from which they were taken. By the latter end 

 of June they will have shot a foot, or about a foot and a half; when they should be freed 

 from the clay, and the matting taken off. At this time, of those which have put forth two 

 shoots, the weakest should be taken off, to strengthen the other, and to lighten the head, 

 which would otherwise be subject to be broken off by high winds. By autumn the shoot 

 will have grown about a yard in length ; and, in the winter, the ground should be dug 

 between the rows. 



In this place the plants may remain till they are of a sufficient size to be planted out 

 for continuance, with no other trouble than what was directed for the layers; namely, 

 keeping them clear of weeds, and digging between the rows in the winter ; at the same 

 time taking off all very large side-branches ; and, in the summer, pinching off such young 

 shoots, in the head, as may have a tendency to make the tree forked. 



This practice of grafting will be found a valuable improvement of the English Elm, 

 if we consider the nature of the Wych Elm, on which it is grafted. First, the W^ych Elm 

 not only grows to the largest size of all the sorts, but also grows the fastest. However, 

 this is not to be wondered at, if we examine the root, which we shall find more fibrous 

 than in any of the other Elms. Now, as all roots are of a spongy nature, to receive the 

 juices of the earth for the nourishment and growth of the tree, that tree must necessarily 

 grow the fastest whose root is most spongy and porous ; end therefore the English Elm, 

 when set upon the root of the Wych, will draw from the earth a greater quantity 

 of nutriment. The English Elm, on this basis, will arrive at timber many years sooner 

 than when raised by layers, and be also forced to a greater size. 



All kinds of Elms, the Wych excepted, are proper to plant in hedge-rows, upon the 

 borders of fields, where they will thrive much better than when planted in a wood, 

 or close plantation, and their shade will not be very injurious to whatever grows under 

 them ; but when these trees are transplanted out upon banks after this manner, the banks 



