32 OF TNCLOSURES

plants as may be, which will tend to make them branch out into ftill more nu- merous ramifications. And if the ground be dug every winter afterwards, keeping at a little greater diftance from the plant at each fueceffive digging, the roots will be kept at all times fo fhort, and their rami- fications will be fo numerous near the ftem, that when they fhall be lifted to be put into the hedge, they will not fail to be provided with fuch an abundance of mouths to imbibe nourifhment with, as to be in no danger of fuffering much by that operation.

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If the foil of the nurfery be fufficiently rich, and if the thorns have been tranf- planted while young, and early in winter, they will rufh up chiefly in height, and fend out but few lateral branches; which is a thing much to be wifhed for in a nurfery: therefore care ought to be taken, when they are firft tranfplanted, not to bruife or injure the{tem of the plant, nor, on almoft any account, to cut it over, un- lefs the ftem was before nirly and ftinted. Neither ought the upright fhoots to be in any cafe fhortened while in the nurfery:

I: But