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A DISCOURSE

4. I have known stakes, sharpened at the ends for other purposes, takeroot familiarly in moist grounds, and become trees; and divers haveefsayed, with extraordinary succefs, the trunchions of the boughs andarms of FJms, cut to the scantling of a man’s arm,, about an ell in length:These must be chopped on each side opposite, then laid into trenchesabout half a foot deep, and covered about two or three fingers deep withgood mould. The season for this work is towards the exit of January,or early in February, if the frosts impede not; and, after the first year,you may cut or saw the trunchions off in as many places as you findcause, and as the shoots and rooted sprouts will direct you for trans-plantation. Another expedient for the propagation of Elms is this: Lettrenches be sunk at a good distance, viz. twenty or thirty yards fromsuch trees as stand in hedge-rows, and in such order as you desire yourElms should grow: Where these gutters are, many young Elms willspring from the small roots of the adjoining trees. Divide, after oneyear, the shoots from their mother-roots, which you may dexterouslydo with a sharp spade, and these, transplanted, will prove good treeswithout any damage to their progenitors. Or do thus: Lop a youngElm, the lop being about three years growth ; do it in the latter endof March, when the sap begins to creep up into the boughs, and thebuds are ready to break out; cut. the boughs into lengths of four feetslanting, leaving the knot where the bud seems to put forth in themiddle : Inter these short pieces in trenches of three or four inches deep,and in good mould well troden, and they will infallibly produce youa crop ; for even the smallest suckers of Elms will grow, being set whenthe sap is newly stirring in them. There is yet a fourth way, no lefsexpeditious, and frequently confirmed with excellent succefs: Bare someof the master-roots of a vigorous tree within a foot of the trunk,or thereabouts, and with your ax make several chops, putting a smallstone into every cleft to hinder the closure, and give accefs to the wet;then cover them with three or four inches of earth, and thus they willsend forth suckers in abundance ; I afsureyou, one single Elm, thus wellordered, is a fair nursery, which, after two or three years, you mayseparate and plant in the Ulmarium , or place designed for them; andwhich, if it be in plumps, as they call them, wdthin ten or twelve feetof each other, or in hedge-rows, it will be better; for the Elm is a treeof consort, sociable, and so affecting to grow in company, that the verybest which I have ever seen do almost touch one another: This also