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dentures of the leaf j and so of the bark, asperous or smooth, brown or chap.bright, &c. Though most, if not all of them, may rather be imputed tothe genius and nature of the soil, situation or goodnefs of the seed, thaneither to the pretended sex or species. And these observations mayserve to discover many accidental varieties in other trees, without nicerdistinctions, such as are fetched from profefsed botanists, who make itnot so much their study to plant and propagate trees, as to skill in their
by being thus crofs-ploughed and well harrowed, will be in proper order for theirreception. The manner of planting the sets is as follows;
First, carefully take the plants out of the seed-bed, shorten the tap-root, and take offpart of the side-shoots, that there may be an equal proportion of strength between the stemand the root. If the wood is designed to be but small, ten, twenty, or thirty acres, thenlines may be drawn, and the trees planted in rows, four feet distant from each other, andthe trees two feet asunder in the row: each line must have a man and a boy for planting.The ground being made light and pliable by crofs-ploughing and harrowing, the manstrikes his spade into the earth close to the line; he then takes it out and gives anotherstroke at right angles with it; then the boy, having a parcel of plants under his left arm,takes one with his right hand , and readiiy puts it into the crevice made by the spade atthe second stroke : after this the man gently prefses the mould to it with his foot, andthus the young Oakling is planted. He proceeds in the same manner to the next, and soon ’till all is finished. An active man will, with his boy, plant 1500 or 2000 in a day; andwhile they are planting, others should be employed in taking up fresh sets from the seed--bed, sorting them and preparing their roots. In short, a sufficient number of handsshould be set to every part of this work, that the whole may be carried on with dispatch;for the ground cannot be too soon furnished with its plants, after it is in readinefs to re-ceive them; neither can the plants be put too early into the ground, after they are takenup from the seminary. Those plants which are nearly of the same size should be madeto occupy a large quarter together, and the weakest should be left in the seminary a yearlonger to gain strength.
The trees, either for small or large plantations, being in the ground, the first care shouldbe to fence them well from cattle, and even, if pofsible, from rabbits and hares. The nextshould be, to keep them clear from weeds, that they may not be incommoded in theirgrowth. In all lands, weeds must be carefully watched, and destroyed at their first appear-ance. In small plantations hoeing may do; but where the plantations are large and noble,a double-shelving plough should be provided; and when the weeds are got two or threeinches high, this must be drawn exactly, down the middle of each row by horses with theirmouths muzzled, somebody leading the foremost horse : this plough will effectually throwa ridge each way, so that the edge of it will be almost contiguous to the plants on bothsides. This being done, the whole surface of the ground will be changed, and the weedsall buried, except a few about the stems of the plants, which a man following the ploughshould cut or pluck up. In this manner the ground may lie until a flesh crop of weeds-present themselves; when these are about three inches high, a common plough should be