OF FOREST-TREES. 



2. The timber of the Sorb is useful for the joiner, and with which CHAP. X. 

 I have seen a room curiously wainscotted : Also for the engraver of wood ^^V^^ 

 cuts; for bows, pulleys, screws, mill and other spindles; for goads 

 to drive oxen with ; for pistol and gun-stocks, and for most that the wild 

 Pear-tree serves : being of a very delicate grain, it serves the turner for 

 divers curiosities, and looks beautifully, and is almost everlasting ; when 

 rubbed over with oil of linseed, well boiled, it is made to counterfeit 

 Ebony, or almost any Indian wood, coloured according to art : Also 



All these species are propagated by sowing the seeds ; and the varieties are continued 



by budding them upon stocks of the white-thorn. In order to raise them from seeds, 



it is, by some, advised to sow them soon after they are ripe, in beds of fresh, light, rich 

 earth. Let alleys be left between the beds, for the conveniency of weeding, and let 

 the seeds be covered over with fine mould, about an inch deep. The summer following, 

 the beds must be kept clean of weeds, and probably some few plants will appear : But 

 this is not common in any of the sorts j for they generally lie till the second spring after 

 sowing before they come up. At the time they make their appearance they must be 

 watered, if the weather proves dry ; and this should be occasionally repeated all summer. 

 They should also be constantly kept clean from weeds ; and in the autumn the strongest 

 may be drawn out, and set in the nursery-ground, a foot asunder, in rows two feet distant 

 from each other: while the weakest may remain until another year. During the time 

 they are in the nursery, the ground between the rows should be dug every winter, and 

 the weeds constantly hoed down in the summer ; and this is all the trouble they will 

 require until they are planted out for good, which may be in two, three, or more years, 

 at the pleasure of the owner, or according to the purposes for which they are wanted.— 

 I rather recommend them to be raised as the Common Haw, in the following manner : 

 The Common Haw, used for our fences in England, should, as soon as gathered, be buried 

 in a dry trench in the month of October. To prevent their being heated, it will 

 be proper to pick off any leaves that may have been gathered with them ; and for the 

 same reason they should not lie above a foot thick in the trench. In this bed they should 

 remain two winters and one summer. In the second spring they will begin to sprout, 

 when they should be sown in beds, and kept clear from weeds. Some of those plants will 

 be of size to plant out for hedges the first year, and, in the North of England, will sell for 

 three shillings per thousand ; but it is much more judicious to draw them from the seed- 

 bed, and transplant them into the nursery at six inches distance from each other. There 

 they should remain two years, at the expiration of which time they will have got good 

 roots. Such plants are cheaper at seven shillings a thousand than those from the seed-bed 

 at half a crown. To this observation I earnestly request the attention of all persons 

 engaged in making inclosures. 



In the Linnaean System the CRAT^GUS, or Wild Service, is of the class and order 

 Icosandria Digynia, the flower having twenty or more stamina and two styles. 



G g 2 



