OE FOREST-TREES.

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being percolated through a quantity of earth, will carry the nitrous virtue chap. v.of the soil with it: By no means therefore water at the stem, because it < **~Y~***washes the mould from the, roots, comes too crude, and endangers theirrotting.

But, for the cooling and refreshing tree roots, the congesting of rottenlitter, sprinkled over with fine earth, is good; or place potsherds, flints,or pebbles near the foot of the stem ; for so the Poet:

Aut lapidem bibulum, aut squallentes infode conchas;

Inter enim labentur aquae, tenuisque subibit

Halitus. - GEORG, ii.

Lime-stones, or squalid shells, that may the rain,

Vapours, and gliding moisture entertain.

But remember you remove them after a competent time) else the vermine,snails, and insects, which they produce and shelter, will gnaw and greatlyinjure the bark ; and therefore to lay a coat of moist rotten litter witha little earth upon it, will preserve it moist in summer and warm inwinter, enriching the showers and dews that strain through it.

Young plants will be strangled with corn, oats, pease, or hemp, or anvrankly growing grain, if a competent circle and distance be not left, as ofnear a yard or so olf the stem. This is a useful remark ; but whether thesetting or sowing of beans near trees make them thrive the more,as Theophrastus writes, (I suppose he means fruit-trees) I leave toexperience.

Cut no trees (especially'having' an eminent pith in them, being youngand tender too) when either heat or cold are in extremes, nor in very wetand snowy weather; and in this work it is profitable to discharge all treesof unthriving, broken, wind-shaken browse, and such as our law termsCablicid, and to take them off to the quick,

-Ne pars sincera trahatur.

And-for Evergreens, especially such as are tender, prune them notafter planting till they do radicate; that is, by some little fresh shootdiscover that they have taken root.

Cut not off the top of the leading twig or shoot (unlefs very crooked,and then at the next erect bud) when you transplant timber-trees, but

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