s you would do
beans; and as some practise it, drench'd for a night or more, in new
milk; but without half this preparation, they need only be put into the
holes with the point upmost, as you plant tulips; Pliny will tell you
they come not up, unless four or five be pil'd together in a hole; but
that is false, if they be good, as you may presume all those to be which
pass this examination; nor will any of them fail: But being come up,
they thrive best unremoved, making a great stand for at least two years
upon every transplanting; yet if needs you must alter their station, let
it be done about November, and that into a light friable ground, or
moist gravel, however they will grow even in clay, sand, and all mixed
soils, upon exposed and bleak places, and the pendent declivities of
hills to the north, in dry airy places, and sometimes (tho' not so well)
near marshes and waters; but they affect no other compost, save what
their own leaves afford them, and are more patient of cold than heat: As
for their sowing in the nursery, treat them as you are taught in the
wall-nut.

2. If you design to set them in Winter, or Autumn, I counsel you to
interr them within their husks, which being every way arm'd, are a good
protection against the mouse, and a providential integument. Pliny l.
15. c. 23. from this natural guard, concludes them to be excellent food,
and doubtless Caesar thought so, when he transported them from Sardis
first into Italy, whence they were propagated into France, and thence
among us; another encouragement to make such experiments out of foreign
countries. Some sow them confusedly in the furrow like the acorn, and
govern them as the oak; but then would the ground be broken up 'twixt
November and February; and when they spring, be clensed, and thinn'd two
foot asunder, after two years growth: Likewise may copses of chesnuts be
wonderfully increased and thickned, by laying the tender and young
branches; but such as spring from the nuts and marrons, are best of all,
and will thrive exceedingly, if (being let stand without removing) the
ground be stirr'd, and loosened about their roots, for two or three of
the first years, and the superfluous wood prun'd away; and indeed for
good trees, they should be shrip'd up after the first year's removal;
they also shoot into gallant poles from a felled stem: Thus will you
have a copse ready for a felling, within eight years, which (besides
many other uses) will yield you inc