OF FOREST-TREES.

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a fable by the.lefs observant and ignorant vulgar: Let it therefore chabe tried in season, by turning and raking some fine earth, often refreshed,under some. amply spreading tree ; or to raise them of their seeds,being well dried a day or. two before, sprinkled on beds preparedof good loamy fresh earth, and -sifting some of the finest mould thinlyover them, and watering them when need requires : Being risen, which.

during the hot season ; and they should also sometimes be refreshed with water: Partof the young plants will come up in about a month, or sooner; the others not tilLthespring following. From the time the seeds are sown to their appearance above ground,whenever rain falls, be careful to uncover the beds, and be as ready to cover them againwhen the scorching beams of the sun break out. About the end of August, the matsshould be wholly taken away, that the plants may be hardened against winter: Thespring following, a fresh crop will present themselves among those that came up thesummer before: All the summer following they should be constantly kept free from weeds,and watered as often as dry weather shall render it necefsary ; and in October, or spring,they may be planted out in the nursery, at the distance before prescribed for the layers,and afterwards should be managed like them.

Grafting is the next method of propagating Elms, all the sorts of which may be increasedthis way: The stocks for the purpose should be the common broad-leaved, Or Wych Elm,■which must be raised from the seed, and planted out as before. When they have growntwo years in the nursery they will be of proper size to receive the graft; the beginningof March is the best time for the work. If a large quantity of Elm stocks areto be grafted, procure six men in readinefs for the purpose: The businefs of the first manis to take the mould from the stem of the stocks,' with a spade, down to the root, layingthe top of the root bare; the next man is to follow him with a sharp pruning-knife,cutting off the heads of the stocks, and leaving the stumps to be grafted only abouttwo inches above the root; the third man is the grafter himself, who, having his graftscut about four or five inches in length, all of the young wood, and such as have neverbore lateral branches, in a dish, takes out one of them, and, holding it in his left hand,the taper end being from him, with the knife that is in his right, he takes off a slope,about an inch and an half, or two inches long; and, if the grafter be an artist, it willbe cut as true as if wrought by a plane. This done, he forms a tongue by making a smallslit upwards, beginning from the top of the slope, and then proceeds to prepare the stockto receive it, which is effected, by sloping off a side of it, of the same length with thesloped graft, that the parts may fit as near as pofsible: He then makes a cut, nearly at thetop of the stock, downward, to receive the tongue he had made in the graft; and, havingproperly joined them, he proceeds to the next. After the grafter,, follows a person withbafs matting, cut into proper lengths; and, with these, he ties the grafts pretty closeto the stock. The fifth man brings the clay, which should have been prepared a week,or longer, before, and well worked and beaten over, mixed with a fourth part of horse-dung, and some chopped hay, in order to make it hang the better together; with thisbe surrounds the graft and the stock. Lastly, the sixth man comes and closes the clay*