158 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. protection against the mouse, and a providential integument. Pliny, 

 libi XV. cap. xxiii, from this natural guard, concludes them to be excellent 

 food ; and doubtless Cassar thought so, when he transported them from 

 Sardis first into Italy,whence they were propagated into France, and thence 

 among us; another encouragement to make such experiments out of foreign 

 countries. Some sow them confusedly in the furrow like the acorn, and 

 govern them as the Oak; but then tiie ground should be broken up be- 

 twixt November and February ; and when they spring, be cleansed and 

 thinned two feet asunder, after two years growth : Likewise may copses 

 of Chestnuts be wonderfully increased and thickened, by laying the 

 tender and young branches ; but such as spring from the nuts and 

 marrons are best of all, and will thrive exceedingly, if (being let stand 

 without removing) the ground be stirred, and loosened about their roots 

 for two or three of the first years, and the superfluous wood pruned 

 away ; and indeed for good trees, they should be shriped up after the 

 first year's removal ; they also shoot into gallant poles from a felled stem : 

 Thus will you have a copse ready for a felling, within eight years, which, 

 besides many other uses, will yield you incomparable poles for any work 

 of the garden, vineyard, or hop-yard, till the next cutting ; and if the 

 tree like the ground, it will, in ten or twelve years, grow to a kind 

 of timber, and bear plentiful fruit. 



3. I have seen maiiy Chestnut-trees transplanted as big as my arm, 

 their heads cut off at five and six feet height, but they came on at leisure. 



" of nourishment, and consequently must in proportion grow slower, but also because the 

 "expenses will be less. While they are in the nursery, a vast quantity of them will 

 " stand upon a small space of ground, and consequently be raised at a small expense ; but 

 " when the nuts are planted with a design to remain, the whole extent of the ground 

 " intended for the wood must be kept clear of weeds, till the plants are grown of a suf- 

 " ficient size to defend themselves." — Body of Planting, p. 14. 



The Chestnut will thrive on almost all soils and in all situations. It will grow best, 

 indeed, in a rich loamy land ; but it will succeed very well on that which is gravelly, 

 clayey, or sandy. All mixed soils are suitable to it, as well as exposed places, and the 

 declivities of hills. Posts made of tliis tree are much more durable than Oak. 



This tree had its name Castanea from a town of the name of Kao-7avK in Thessaly, about 

 which the Chestnut grew in great abundance. It lias the same appellation in all the 

 European languages. In (merman, it is castanienbaum; in Swedish and Danish, 

 CASTANiETRiEB; iu French, CHATAIGNER J in Italian, castagno; in Spanish, castano ; 

 in Portuguese, castanheiro ; in Russian, it is keschtan. 



