124 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. 4. I have known stakes, sharpened at the ends for other purposes, take 

 "^"^^"^^ root familiarly in moist grounds, and become trees ; and divers have 

 essayed, with extraordinary success, the truncheons of the boughs and 

 arms of Elms, cut to the scantling of a man's arm, about an ell in length : 

 These must be chopped on each side opposite, then laid into trenches 

 about half a foot deep, and covered about two or three fingers deep with 

 good mould. The season for this work is towards the exit of January, 

 or early in February, if the frosts impede not ; and, after the first year, 

 you may cut or saw the truncheons off in as many places as you find 

 cause, and as the shoots and rooted sprouts will direct you for trans- 

 plantation. Another expedient for the propagation of Elms is this: Let 

 trenches be sunk at a good distance, viz. twenty or thirty yards from 

 such trees as stand in hedge-rows, and in such order as you desire your 

 Elms should grow : Where these gutters are, many young Elms will 

 spring from the small roots of the adjoining trees. Divide, after one 

 year, the shoots from their mother-roots, which you may dexterously 

 do with a sharp spade, and these, transplanted, will prove good trees 

 without any damage to their progenitors. Or do thus : Lop a young 

 Elm, the lop being about three years growth ; do it in the latter end 

 of March, when the sap begins to creep up into the boughs, and the 

 buds are ready to break out ; cut the boughs into lengths of four feet 

 slanting, leaving the knot where the bud seems to put forth in the 

 middle : Inter these short pieces in trenches of three or four inches deep, 

 and in good mould well trodden, and they will infallibly produce you 

 a crop ; for even the smallest suckers of Elms will grow, being set when 

 the sap is newly stirring in them. There is yet a fourth way, no less 

 expeditious, and frequently confirmed with excellent success; Bare some 

 of the master-roots of a vigorous tree within a foot of the trunk, 

 or thereabouts, and with your axe make several chops, putting a small 

 stone into every cleft to hinder the closure, and give access to the wet ; 

 then cover them with three or four inches of earth, and thus they will 

 send forth suckers in abundance ; I assure you, one single Elm, thus well 

 ordered, is a fair nursery, which, after two or three years, you may 

 separate and plant in the Ulmarium, or place designed for them ; and 

 which, if it be in plumps, as they call them, within ten or twelve feet 

 of each other, or in hedge-rows, it will be better ; for the Elm is a tree 

 of consort, sociable, and so alFecting to grow in company, that the very 

 best which I have ever seen do almost touch one another : This also 



