210 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I, or eight feet long, thrust two feet into the earth, (a hole being made with 

 ^^''"^^ a sharp hard stake, filled with water, and then with fine earth pressed 

 in, and close about them,) when once rooted, may be cut at six inches 

 above ground ; and thus placed at a yard distant, they will immediately 



be in two years, if they are designed to form small woods, or spinneys, in boggy or watery 

 grounds. 



If they are wanted as standards, for fields, sides of rivers, &c. they may remain in the 

 nursery another year, when they may be taken out and planted ; and in a few years they 

 ■will make a surprising progress, so as to be worth, in about twenty or thirty years, as many 

 shillings a-piece. 



In order to form a coppice of these trees, if the land be not so boggy but that it may be 

 ploughed, a crop of oats or other grain may be got off it the preceding year of planting; 

 and in the autumn it would be a still greater advantage, if, just before the planting, it was 

 to be ploughed again ; as by this operation it would be rendered lighter, and the weeds, &c. 

 would be buried. Having prepared the ground, let the two-year old plants be taken out 

 of the nursery, and planted one yard asunder. It will be proper to continue hoeing the 

 weeds down for the first year : Afterward, they will require no farther trouble till the time 

 of cutting, which may be in seven years from the first planting ; and every four or five 

 years after, they may be cut for poles, fire-wood, &c. The quickness of the growth of 

 these trees, and their value when cut, even for these purposes, greatly augment the value 

 of the land planted with them : Nay, by this means, boggy or marshy ground will produce 

 more per acre than the best pasture or feeding land ; a consideration which should sti- 

 mulate every gentleman possessed of a large quantity of such sort of land, which brings 

 him in very little, to improve in this manner. If the ground for these plantations be so 

 boggy as not to admit of ploughing and sowing, then the planter must be contented with 

 taking the plants out of the nursery, and setting them in holes at the aforesaid distance ; and 

 they will thrive surprisingly even in this way. 



Every gentleman desirous of having plantations of large trees of the sorts I have recom- 

 mended, should plant them as before directed, at one yard asunder ; and when their heads 

 begin to interfere and incommode one another, every other tree should be taken away, 

 which will sell for large poles ; and the remainder should be left to grow for timber. But 

 though I advise every other tree to be taken away, I would not have this caution too 

 strictly observed : I only mean to have the weakest and least thriving eradicated ; and if 

 two fine luxuriant trees should stand together, with others less promising on each side, let 

 the weakest be taken up. And thus they should continue to be thinned as often as they 

 grow too close, till you have a plantation of timber Poplar-trees. 



I must not forget to give another precaution to the Poplar planter, viz. That after these 

 trees are planted out for good, he should never suffer a tree to be stripped up, nor even a 

 side-branch taken off ; for by doing this, the progress of the tree will be stopped for some . 

 years ; whereas, if these are permitted to remain, they will powerfully attract the nutritious 

 juices of the atmosphere, and help to supply the trunk, as well as themselves, in such plenty, 

 as to contribute surprisingly to the increase of the tree. Boards made of Poplar are 



