AND FENCES: 29

year longer. For, if the young thorn fhould be allowed to attain any, confider- able magnitude before this operation, the proportion of roots that it would then lofe, would be fo very great, as would en- danger the. future health of the plant; which will not be the cafe if the plants are very young. For which reafon, this ne- ceflary operation ought, on no account, to be deferred longer than till the fecond winter after the plant appears above ground.

Nurferymen, in general, tranfplant their thorns from the feed-bed at two years old, and plant them into rows about a foot or fixteen inches from one another, and keep

them clean ever afterw ards by means of

the hand-hoe. In confequence of being

thus tran{planted, the

roots are a little fhortened, which is of fome{fervice to them: fo that tranfblanted quicks, if of the fame age and vigour, will always be

better plant ts than fuch as have been al-

lowed to remain in the feed-bed. But if

thefe thorns remain above a ies or two in the nurfery after they have been trant{- planted, their roots extend to a creat dif-

tance;

Ne 3

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ee