154 THE NURSERY. [Feb. 
cautious in that point, and if the earth of your bed is not light and 
dry enough for this purpose, you must carry as much as will cover 
the seeds from some dry compost heap, or some quarter of the gar- 
den where it can be found in a suitable condition. 
On examining your haws, if you find the earth in which they are 
mixed, any way clogged with too much moisture, so that the parts 
and seeds would not separate freely in the act of sowing; mix 
therewith a sufficient quantity of slack-lime, or wood-ashes, to ac- 
complish that end. 
Having every thing in readiness, and your ground well dug, and 
raked effectually as you proceeded in the digging, still presuming 
that it is in the best possible state of preparation, lay it out into four 
feet wide beds, leaving twelve or fourteen inches of an alley be- 
tween each, and with the back of the rake, push off into these al- 
leys, about three quarters of an inch of the fine raked surface of 
the beds, one half of each bed to the one side, and the other to 
the opposite; this done, sow your haws thereon, earth and all as 
they had lain, so thick that you may expect a thousand plants at 
least, after every reasonable allowance for faulty or imperfect seeds, 
(there being many of these,) on every three or four yards of your 
beds; (I have often had that number upon as many feet) then with 
a spade or shovel, cast the earth cut of the alleys eveniy over the beds, 
covering the seeds not more than three quarters of an inch deep, 
and not more than half an inch, if the earth be any way stiff; after 
•which, rake the tops of the beds very lightly, taking care not to dis- 
turb the seeds, in order to take off the lumps and to give a neat 
appearance to the work. 
The business being thus finished for the present, should you at a 
future period perceive, especially when the plants are beginning to 
appear above ground, any stiffness on the surface, occasioned by dry 
weather, give the beds frequent, but gentle waterings, till all those 
innocent prisoners are released from their bondage, after which 
you will have pleasure and profit in their progress. 
But this is not all; the whole of your former trouble will be 
totally lost, unless you are particularly careful in keeping these 
beds effectually free from weeds, from the moment the plants appear 
above ground, till they are fit to be planted in hedge-rows, and even 
then, until they have arrived at a sufficient size, not to be injured 
by such. 
It was an old practice, to sow these seeds as soon as ripe, covering 
them about an inch deep; but the loss of the ground during the 
long period in which they lie dormant, the trouble and expense 
of weeding them all that time, the numbers pulled up and exposed 
to aninsals of various sorts, and I may say the exposure of the 
whole to mice, squirrels, 8cc. have very justly induced to the aban- 
donment of that mode of culture. 
Indeed, they may be sown with considerable safety, the November 
twelve months after they are ripe, being previously prepared as 
before directed, there is no impediment in their way at that season, 
but their long exposure to the depredations of mice, &c. which are 
extremely fond of their kernels; as to frost they value it not. 
