PLANTING FOREST TREES. 
307 
thereof,) gave me orders to make three walks of lime-trees, from the 
new garden to the new bowling-green, and withal to make them de¬ 
scend towards the house as near as we could. Having first levelled 
the hill, 1 staked out my ground where every tree should stand, and 
then ordered the holes to he made for the trees, each hole being 
three feet and four feet wide, because the ground was so had. This 
I did a year before I set my trees; and, having the convenience of 
brick earth near, I got a load to every hole and mixed it with the 
earth digged out of the hills, turning it over twice, in dry weather, 
throwing out the great stones. I did throw the turf into each hole 
(the grass side down) as soon as they were made; but the hill of 
gravel I trenched with loam, cow-dung, and the litter under the cow 
racks, two feet deep, and five feet on each side of every row of trees. 
Having thus prepared my ground, and the season of the year being 
come; about the beginning of November 1672,1 had the trees taken 
up with good help, as carefully as I could, and carried to Cashio- 
berry, the place of their present abode. Then having good store of 
help and good mould, prepared of the smallest and finest, I set the 
trees with the upper part of the roots of each tree level with the top 
of the ground, making a round hill, half a foot high, about every 
tree, the compass of the hole. Having pruned the head of each tree, 
and the ends of such roots as were broken, I sorted the trees, and 
observed this method in placing them, namely, I set the highest 
next the bowling-green, and so shorter and shorter till the lowest 
were near the garden, which I did for these reasons, viz.: the green 
was the worst ground, and the trees were in danger of being spoiled 
by a market path that goeth across that end of the walk to Watford. 
Having thus set my trees straight in the rows, and trod the earth 
close to their roots, and made my hills, I then laid round every tree 
upon those hills wet litter, taken off the dunghill, two good barrows- 
fill for every tree, and covered that with a little mould, leaving them 
to lake their rest for a time. Early in the spring, I found them be¬ 
gin to progress, and that summer they had such heads shot forth that 
I was forced to cut off some of these, (that is, side boughs) to pre¬ 
vent the wind from breaking them. There are in these four rows of 
trees 296, and of these I lost not one tree the first season.” 
It would be very curious and interesting to every lover of plant¬ 
ing to have a full account of the present state of these trees, the age 
of which is thus nicely ascertained to be 160 years. Should any of 
them he cut down the number of rings ought to he well examined. 
Prav bear this in mind, and try to persuade the gardener at Cashio- 
berry, to send you some particulars about them. 
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