Mr. Miller recommends autumn as the best season for sowing them: but Mr. Boutcher directs, 
that having spread the seeds thin on a loft floor till dry, they should be mixed with loose sand, and 
kept in an airy place till the beginning of March; when they should be sowed on fresh light land, 
, trenched or dug the preceding autumn, made very loose, raked fine, and divided into beds three 
feet and a half wide. No earth should be thrown over them, but they should be clapped in with 
the back of a spade. If the weather be dry and frosty, a little peas-haulm may be thrown over the 
beds for three or four weeks, till the seeds begin to vegetate. Then, the ground being kept clean, 
three or four gentle waterings may be given at noon in April, which may be repeated till the middle 
of June in mild evenings. The following March they may be removed into the nursery, in rows 
two feet and a half distant, and ten or twelve inches asunder, to stand there two years; or three, if 
they have made little progress. In which case, after the second year's growth, cut such as are least 
thriving or crooked, close to the ground, in March. 
Mr. Miller recommends the seeds to be sown in the shade, and adds that in such a situation, the 
plants will thrive better than when they are exposed to the full sun; for in all places where there 
are any large trees their seeds fall, and the plants come up well without care; so that if the young 
plants are not destroyed by cattle, there is generally plenty of them in all the woods where there 
any of these trees. These wild plants should be carefully taken up, so as not to destroy their roots. 
The ground where they are to be planted, will require no preparation; all that is necessary to be 
done, is to loosen it with a spade or mattock, in the places where the plants are to stand, making 
holes to receive their roots, covering them again when the plants are placed, and closing the earth 
hard to the roots. 
The broom-makers are constant customers for Birch, in all places within twenty miles of 
London, or where it is near water carriage; in other parts the hoop-benders are the purchasers; but 
the larger trees are often bought by the turners, and the wood is used for making ox-yokes, and 
other instruments of husbandry. 
When coppices of Birch are wanted for the broom-maker, the plants from the nursery or the 
woods should be set five feet asunder: in eight years they will be ready to cut, when an acre will 
be worth about ten pounds: after this they may be cut every six years. For hoops, &c. they may 
be cut every twelfth year, and will be worth twelve pounds and upwards. Where the land will 
admit of the plow, a crop of corn is the best preparation* 
Species 2, 3, &c. The American sorts may be propagated by seeds in the same manner as the 
first, and are equally hardy. As these grow more vigorously than the common sort, and thrive on 
the most barren ground, they may be cultivated to great advantage in England. 
Species 4. The Alder, delighting in a very moist soil, where few other trees will thrive, is a great 
improvement to such lands. It is propagated by layers, cuttings, or truncheons about three feet in 
length. The best time for planting truncheons is in February or the beginning of March; they 
should be sharpened at one end, and the ground must be loosened with an iron crow before they 
are thrust into it, that the bark may not be torn off. They must be planted at least two feet deep, 
to prevent their being blown out of the ground by strong winds, after they have made their shoots. 
The plantations should be cleared at first of tall weeds; but when the trees have made good heads, 
they will require no farther care. 
If you raise them by layers, this operation must be performed in October, and by the October 
following they will have taken root sufficiently to be transplanted. They should be set at least a 
* Hunter's Evelyn. 
