260

A DISCOURSE

BOOK I.

whom we shall have occasion to mention, with great respect, in thechapter of Quicksets*

The considerable improvement which may be made in common field 3as well as inclosed grounds, he demonstrates by a little spot of meadowof about a rod and half; part of which being planted, about fifty yearssince, with Willows, (in a clump not exceeding four poles in length,on one side about twelve,) several of them at the first and second lopping,being left with a strait top, run up, like Elms, to thirty or forty feetin height; which some years since yielded boards of fourteen or fifteeninches broad, as good for flooring and other purposes within doors>as deals, last as long, work finer, white and beautiful: It is indeeda good while since they were planted, but it seems the crop answeredhis patience, when he cut up as many of them (the year 1700) as werewell worth ten pounds; and since that another tree, for which, withthose that were left, a joiner offered him as much, which was moreby half than the whole ground itself was worth; so as having madetwenty pounds of the spot, he still pofsefses it without much damageto the grafs. The method of planting was first by making holes withan iron crow, and widening them with a stake of wood, fit-to receivea lusty plant, and sometimes boring the ground with an auger; butneither of these succeeding, (by reason the earth could not be rammedso close to the sides and bottom of the sets as was requisite to keepthem steady, ahd seclude the air, which would corrupt and kill theroots,) he caused holes, or little pits, of a foot square and depthto be dug, and then making a hole with the crow in the bottom of thepits to receive the set, and breaking the turf which came out of it,rammed it in with the mould close to the sets, (as they would do to fixa gate-post,) with great care not to gall the bark of it. He had diverstimes before this miscarried, when he used formerly to set them in plainground, without breaking the surface, and laying it close to the sets;and therefore, if the soil be moist, he digs a trench by the side of therow, and applies the mould which comes out of it about the sets ;so that the edge of the bank, raised by it, may be somewhat higher thtmthe earth next the set, for the better descent of the rain, and advantageof watering the sets in dry weather j preventing likewise their rootingin the bank, which they would do if the ground next the plant or set