CHAP. CV.

coryi.a'ce;e. fa'gvs.

1969

of March till the beginning of April. Autumn might be adopted for sowing,were it not that the nuts are greedily sought after, through the winter, by miceand other vermin. One bushel of seed, according to Mitchell, weighs 341b.unheaped, and contains 58,656 seeds. From 1 \ bushel of seeds, the produceof the year 1786, kept in sand till the following spring, not less than 150,000plants were raised, and planted on the Muirland Hills, at Dillorn, Stafford-shire , by J. Halliday, Esq., who received a gold medal for so doing. (Trans.Soc. Arts, vol. x., for 1792, p. 18.) The soil in which the nuts are sownought always to be light, and more or less rich, as the plants are rather tenderwhen young. They may either be sown in beds, or in drills, with the usualcovering of soil, being about 1 in. The seeds should not lie nearer to oneanother, when sown, than 1 in. Mast, sown in the autumn, will come upin April; and that sown in spring, seldom later than the beginning of May.Boutcher sows in the beginning of March, in thin shallow drills, about 1 ft. 6 in.asunder; watering, if the season is dry, frequently, but moderately, from theplants beginning to appear above ground, till the middle of August; which, hesays, greatly forwards their growth. “ In March, next season, with a spademade very sharp for the purpose, undermine the roots as they stand in thedrills, and cut them over between 4 in. or 5 in. under ground. The followingautumn or spring, you may either raise the whole, or give them another cut-ting below ground; when, gently raising such as are too thick, leave the re-mainder, at proper distances, to stand another season. This manner of cuttingthe roots dexterously has, in a great measure, the same effect as trans-planting.” {Treatise , &c., p. 22.) After the plants have stood 2 years, or, ifin poor soil, 3 years, they may be transplanted in lines 2 ft, asunder, and9 in. or 10 in. in the line. A great error in treating the beech tree at this age,Boutcher observes, is trimming off all its side branches, and planting only thebare stem. This, he says, is doing the greatest violence to the plants, as notree admits of being less pruned at transplanting than the beech, especiallywhen young; the plants “ constantly turning hide-bound and stunted whenthat is severely done;” therefore, nothing but “ very cross ill-placed branches,and even these very sparingly, are to be touched at this time.” After theplants have remained in these lines 2 years, they are to be removed intoother lines, 3 ft. 6 in. asunder, and at 1 ft. 6 in. apart in the line; whence, afterremaining in good soil 3, but in poor land 4, years, they may either beremoved into a general plantation, where they are to remain permanently, or,if they are to be transplanted from the nursery of a large size, they mustundergo the further discipline of being once, twice, or thrice transplanted, tillat last they stand 10 ft. asunder every way. During the whole of this treat-ment, they must scarcely receive any pruning, except in the season beforefinal removal. At their removal they must not be pruned at all; but, whenonce established, they may be pruned at pleasure, as every beech hedge andbeech coppice shows. In respect to the latter, indeed, a common expres-sion in Buckinghamshire is, “ Cut a beech, and have a beech.”

Final Culture in Plantations. The beech, after being transplanted where itis finally to remain, if in masses, and the plants not above 3 ft. or 4 ft. high,may be cut down to the ground, and the leading shoot produced the followingyear selected, and trained so as to form a clear stem. It has been found, fromexperience, that trees of 20 years’ or 30 years’ growth, when transplanted, suffermuch by pruning at that time, and cannot have their heads cut in, like the oak,the elm, and almost every other species of deciduous membranaceous-leavedtrees, when they are transplanted of large size. They may, however, be cutin a year or two years before removal, and will, in that case, transplant witha much better chance of success. Where a beech w r ood is to be formedon a light poor soil, provided the surface admits of being pulverised bythe plough and harrow, or of being trenched, it may be sown with mast indrills, without the admixture of the seeds of any other tree. The ground mayhe cultivated, for two or three years, between the rows, by horse-hoeing ; andthe plants may be thinned out the second year, so as to stand at 6 ft. apart in

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