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Show A Difcourfe of Foreft-Trees. Chap. XVIII, Chap. XVIII. ~~ A Difcourfe of Forett-Treés. will produce a plentiful crop of Aimfrums. s (asofall or moft other trees they are) being gather- ed after thefirlt Autumnalrains. 3. They havea Poplar in Virginia of a very peculiar fhap’d leaf, as if the point ofit were cut off, which grows very well withthe curiows amongft us to a confiderable ftature, Of the Poplar, Afpen, and Abele. [jopulas. 1 begin this fecond laf (according to our former Poririiation) with the Poplar, of which there are feveral kinds; White, Black, Gc, (which in Candy ‘tis reported bearsfeed’) befides the 4jpen. The white isthe moft ordinary with us, to be rais'd in abundance by every fet orip. Fence the groundasfar as any old Pop/ar roots extend, they will furnifh you with jackers ine numerable, to beflipp’d from their wothers, and tran|planted the veryfirft year. You fhall need no other Nurjfery. When they are young, their /eaves are fomewhat broader and rounder then when they growaged, Inmoift and boggie places theywill flourifh wonderfully, fo the ground be not fpeming 5 but efpecially near the margins and banks of Rivers, Populus in fluviis ——— and in low, fweet and fertile grounds, —Alfo trunchions of feven or eight foot long, thruft two foot into the earth, (a hole being made with a fharp hardféake, fill’d with water, and then with fine earth prefled in and clofe about them) when once rooted, may be. cut at fix inches above ground; and thus placed at a yard diftans, theywill immediately furnifh a kind of Copfé, But in cafe you plant them of rooted trees, or {maller fets, fix them not fo deep 5 for though we bury the trumchions thus profound, yet is the: root which they {trike commonlybut fhallow. They will make prodigious fhoots in 15 or 16 years; but then the beads mutt by no means be diminifh’d , but the lower branches may, yet not too far up : the foot would alfo be cleanfed every fecond year. This for the White, The Black Poplar is frequently pollar’d when as bigs ones arm, eight or nine foot from the ground, as they trim themin Ztaly for their Vines to ferpent on, and thofe they pol or head everyfecondyear, {paring the middle, ftreight and thrivingeftjhoot, and at the third year cut bizalfo, 2. The fhadeof this tree is efteemed very wholefome in Summer, andtheleaves good for cattel, which muft be {tripp'd from the cut boughs before theyare faggotted, Ivistobe noted,that thofe Fuzgz, which {pring from the putrid {tumpsof this tree, are not vexomow CHAP. XVII 1. gi This to be done in the de- creale of October, and referv'd in bundles for the winter fodder. The wood of white Poplar is fought ofthe Sculptor, and they faw both forts into bo ards, Which, where theylie dry, continue a longtime. Of this materia] they alfo made Shields of defence in Sword and Buc Ale r days. Diofcorides y rites, that the bark: chopt {mall, and fow’din rijls, well and ric hly manur'd and watered, will 1 conceive it was firft brought over by John Tradefcant under the name ofthe Tuliptree, butis not that I find taken notice ofin any of our Herbals 5 I with we had more ofthem, 4+ The Ajpez onely (which is that kind of Libica or white Po- 4/# plar, bearing a {maller and more tremulousleaf ) thrufts downa morefearching foot, and in this likewife differs, that he takes it ill to have his head cut off: Pliny would have fhort trunchions couched two foot in the ground (but firft two days dried) at one foot and halfdiftance, and then moulded over, 5. There is fomething a finer fort of white Poplar, which the Abele Dutch call Abele, and we have much tranfported ‘out-of Holand + thefe are alfo beft propagated of/iips from the roots, the leaft of whichwill take, and mayin March, at three orfour years gtowth be tranfplanted. 6, InFlanders (not in France, asa late Author pretends) they have large Nurferies of them, whichfirft they plant at one foot di: ftance, the mould light and moift, by no means clayie, in which though they may fhoot up tall, yet for want ofroot they never {pread 5 for, asi faid, they muft be iwterr’d pretty deep, not above three inches above ground ; andkept clean by pruning them to the middle (hoot for the firlt two years, and fo till the third or fourth. When you tran/plant, place them at eight,ten, or twelve foot intervall: They will likewife growoflayers, and even of cutting s in very moift places. In three years they will come to an incredible altitude; in twelve, be as big as your middle; and in cighteer or éwenty, arrive to full perfection. A /pecimen ofthis advance we have had of an Abele tree at Sion, which being lopp'd in Febr.1651, did bytheend of Oéober 52 produce branches ‘as big asa mans wriff, and17 foot in length: for which celerity we may recommend them to fuch late builders, as feat their hoxfes in naked and unfheltered places, and that would put a guife ofAntiquity upon any néw Inclofures {ince by thefe, whilefta manis ina voyage ofnolong con. tinuance, his howe and lands maybe fo covered; astobe hardly knownat hisreturn, But asthey thus increafe in bulk, their value ( as the Italian Poplar has taught us ) advances likewile 3 which after the firft feven years is annually worth twelve pexce more; So asthe Dutch look uponaplantation ofthefe trees as an ample portion fora daughter, and none of theleaft effects of their good Huse Landry 3 which truly may verywell be allow’dif that calculation hold, which the Knight has aflerted, who beganhis plantation not long fince about Richmond, that 30 ib, being laid out in thefe plants, wouldrender at the lealt tex thoufand pounds in eighteen years ; |