reserve them in their nuts,
in sand, as you treat acorns, &c. 'till the season invite, and then set
or sow them in ground which is cultivated like the fir, in most
respects; only, you may bury the nuts a little deeper. By a friend of
mine, they were rolled in a fine compost made of sheeps-dung, and
scatter'd in February, and this way never fail'd fir and pine; they came
to be above inch-high by May; and a Spanish author tells us, that to
macerate them five days in a child's urine, and three days in water, is
of wonderful effect: This were an expeditious process for great
plantations; unless you would rather set the pine as they do pease, but
at wider distances, that when there is occasion of removal, they might
be taken up with the earth and all, I say, taken up, and not remov'd by
evulsion; because they are (of all other trees) the most obnoxious to
miscarry without this caution; and therefore it were much better (where
the nuts might be commodiously set, and defended) never to remove them
at all, it gives this tree so considerable a check. The safest course of
all, were to set the nuts in an earthen-pot, and in frosty weather,
shewing it a little to the fire, the intire clod will come out with
them, which are to be reserved, and set in the naked earth, in
convenient and fit holes prepar'd beforehand, or so soon as the thaw is
universal: Some commend the strewing a few oats at the bottom of the
fosses or pits in which you transplant the naked roots, for a great
promotement of their taking, and that it will cause them to shoot more
in one year than in three: But to this I have already spoken. Other
kinds not so rigid, nor the bark, leaf, cone and nuts so large, are
those call'd the mountain-pine, a very large stately tree: There is
likewise the wild, or bastard-pine, and _tea_, clad with thin long
leaves, and bearing a turbinated cone: Abundance of excellent rosin
comes from this tree. There is also the _pinaster_, another of the
wild-kind; but none of them exceeding the Spanish, call'd by us, the
Scotch pine, for its tall and erect growth, proper for large and ample
walks and avenues: Several of the other wild sorts, inclining to grow
crooked. But for a more accurate description of these coniferous trees,
and their perfect distinctions, consult our Mr. Ray's most elaborate and
useful work, where all that can be expected or desir'd, concerning this
profitable, as well as beautiful tree, is amply set down, _Hist. Plant._