et at such
distances as their several kinds require; but if you draw them only for
the thinning of your seminary, prick them into some empty beds (or a
_Plantarium_ purposely design'd) at one foot interval, leaving the rest
at two or three.

5. When your seedlings have stood thus till June, bestow a slight
digging upon them, and scatter a little mungy, half-rotten litter, fern,
bean-hame, or old leaves among them, to preserve the roots from
scorching, and to entertain the moisture; and then in March following
(by which time it will be quite consum'd, and very mellow) you shall
chop it all into the earth, and mingle it together: Continue this
process for two or three years successively; for till then, the
substance of the kernel will hardly be spent in the plant, which is of
main import; but then (and that the stature of your young imps invite)
you may plant them forth, carefully taking up their roots, and cutting
the stem within an inch of the ground (if the kind, of which hereafter,
suffer the knife) set them where they are to continue: If thus you
reduce them to the distance of forty foot, the intervals may be planted
with ash, which may be fell'd either for poles, or timber, without the
least prejudice of the oak: Some repeat the cutting we spake of the
second year, and after March (the moon decreasing) re-cut them at half a
foot from the surface; and then meddle with them no more: But this (if
the process be not more severe than needs) must be done with a very
sharp instrument, and with care, lest you violate, and unsettle the
root; which is likewise to be practis'd upon all those which you did not
transplant, unless you find them very thriving trees; and then it shall
suffice to prune off the branches, and spare the tops; for this does not
only greatly establish your plants by diverting the sap to the roots;
but likewise frees them from the injury and concussions of the winds,
and makes them to produce handsome, streight shoots, infinitely
preferable to such as are abandon'd to nature, and accident, without
this discipline: By this means the oak will become excellent timber,
shooting into streight and single stems: The chess-nut, ash, &c.
multiply into poles, which you may reduce to standards at pleasure: To
this I add, that as oft as you make your annual transplanting, out of
the nursery, by drawing forth the choicest stocks, the remainder will be
improved by a due stirring, and turning of the mould about their ro