Elements of practical agriculture; comprehending the cultivation of plants, the husbandry of the domestic animals, and the economy of the farm / By David Low.

  • Low, David, 1786-1859.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of practical agriculture; comprehending the cultivation of plants, the husbandry of the domestic animals, and the economy of the farm / By David Low. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    506/842 (page 482)
    of the hard-wood kinds require to be sown at a later period, on account of their being subject to injury from frost; and some may be sown in summer and autumn. The young plants remain in the seed-beds for one or two years, during which periods they are termed seedlings. Some of the hardier resinous species, as the larch and the wild pine, may be transplanted at once from the seed-beds to the place which they are to occupy in the forest; whilst others, including several of the resinous, and all the hard-wood kinds, are first transplanted into lines in another part of the nursery, where they remain for one or more years, and then are transplanted to their place in the forest. The most of the resinous trees, when they are to be transplanted into the nursery lines, may be one year’s seedlings ; others of the resinous, and all the hard-wood kinds, should not generally be less than two year’s seedlings before being trans¬ planted to the lines. The transplantation from the seed-beds to the nursery-lines may take place in autumn, after the descent of the sap, or in spring, before vegetation has commenced. The operation may be performed by the spade, but is often performed by the dibble. The plants are set at such distances in the rows that the horizontal branches of the young trees shall not inter¬ fere with one another. In transplanting, no part of the root should be lopped or shortened by the knife, nor the roots doubled in putting them into the ground ; and care should be taken in planting, where the dibble is used, that the root shall be fixed firmly without being compressed at the neck. Certain kinds of tree plants, instead of being propagated by seeds, are propagated by cuttings, consisting of a portion of the shoot of the previous year’s growth, 12 or 15 inches long. These cuttings are planted by thrusting one end a few inches into the ground. This is the manner in which willows and certain poplars are raised. Certain kinds, again, are best propagated by layers. This practice consists in bending down the branches of a growing tree, fixing them in the ground by means of crooked pins of wood, and covering them partly with earth. In this state the covered part