_Of the Hasel._
1. _Nux silvestris_, or _corylus_, the hasel, is best rais’d from
the{136:1} nuts, (also by suckers and layers) which you shall sow like
mast, in a pretty deep furrow toward the end of February, or treat them
as you are instructed in the walnut; light ground may immediately be
sown and harrow’d-in very accurately; but in case the mould be clay,
plow it earlier, and let it be sufficiently mellow’d with the frosts;
and then the third year cut your trees near to the ground with a sharp
bill, the moon decreasing.
2. But if you would make a grove for pleasure, plant them in fosses, at
a yard distance, and cut them within half a foot of the earth, dressing
them for three or four Springs and Autumns, by only loosning the mould a
little about their roots. Others there are, who set the nuts by hand at
one foot distance, to be transplanted the third year, at a yard asunder:
But this work is not to be taken in hand so soon as the nuts fall, till
winter be well advanc’d; because they are exceedingly obnoxious to the
frosts; nor will they sprout till the Spring; besides, vermin are great
devourers of them: Preserve them therefore moist, not mouldy; by laying
them in their own dry leaves, or in sand, till January.
Hasels from sets and suckers take.{136:2}
3. From whence they thrive very well, the shoots being of the
scantlings of small wands and switches, or somewhat bigger, and such as
have drawn divers hairy twigs, which are by no means to be disbranch’d,
no more than their roots, unless by a very sparing and discreet hand.
Thus, your _coryletum_, or copp’ce of hasels, being planted about
Autumn, may (as some practise it) be cut within three or four inches of
the ground the Spring following, which the new cyon will suddenly repair
in clusters, and tufts of fair poles of twenty, or sometimes thirty foot
long: But I rather should spare them till two or three years after, when
they shall have taken strong hold, and may be cut close to the very
earth, the improsperous and feeble ones especially. Thus are likewise
filberts to be treated, both of them improved much by transplanting, but
chiefly by graffing, and it would be try’d with filberts, and even with
almonds themselves, for more elegant experiments.
In the mean time, I do not confound the filbert, pontic, or filbord,
distinguish’d by its beard, among our foresters (or bald hasel-nuts)
which doubtless we had from abroad; and bearing the names of _avelan_,
_avelin_, as I find in some ancient records and deeds in my custody,
where my ancestors names were written Avelan, _alias_, Evelin,
generally.
4. For the place, they above all affect cold, barren, dry, and sandy
grounds; also mountains, and even rocky soils produce them; and where
quaries of free-stone lie underneath, as that at Hasulbery in Wilts,
Haseling-field in Cambridge-shire, Haselmeer in Surrey, and other
places; but more plentifully, if the ground be somewhat moist, dankish
and mossie, as in the fresher bottoms, and sides of hills, hoults, and
in hedge-rows. Such as are maintain’d for copp’ces, may after twelve
years be fell’d the first time; the next, at seven or eight, &c. for by
this period, their roots will be compleatly vigorous. You may plant them
from October to January, provided you keep them carefully weeded, till
they have taken fast hold; and there is not among all our store, a more
profitable wood for copp’ces, and therefore good husbands should store
them with it.
5. The use of the hasel is for poles, spars, hoops, forks, angling-rods,
faggots, cudgels, coals, and springs to catch birds; and it makes one of
the best coals, once us’d for gun-powder; being very fine and light,
till they found alder to be more fit: There is no wood which purifies
wine sooner, than the chips of hasel: Also for with’s and bands, upon
which, I remember, Pliny thinks it a pretty speculation, that a wood
should be stronger to bind withal, being bruis’d and divided, than when
whole and entire: The coals are us’d by painters, to draw with like
those of Sallow: Lastly, for riding switches, and divinatory rods for
the detecting and finding out of minerals; (at least, if that tradition
be no imposture) is very wonderful; by whatsoever occult virtue, the
forked-stick (so cut, and skilfully held) becomes impregnated with those
invisible steams and exhalations; as by its spontaneous bending from an
horizontal posture, to discover not only mines, and subterraneous
treasure, and springs of water, but criminals, guilty of murther, &c.
made out so solemnly, and the effects thereof, by the attestation of
magistrates, and divers other learned and credibile persons, (who have
critically examined matters of fact) is certainly next to miracle, and
requires a strong faith: Let the curious therefore consult that
philosophical treatise of{139:1} Dr. Vallemont; which will at least
entertain them with a world of surprizing things. But now after all the
most signal honour it was ever employ’d in, and which might deservedly
exalt this humble and common plant above all the trees of the wood, is
that of hurdles, (especially the flexible white: the red and brittle);
not for that it is generally used for the folding of our innocent sheep,
an emblem of the church; but for making the walls of one of the first
Christian Oratories in the world; and particularly in this island, that
venerable and sacred fabrick at Glastenbury, founded by St. Joseph of
Arimathea; which is storied to have been first compos’d but of a few
small hasel-rods interwoven about certain stakes driven into the ground;
and walls of this kind, instead of laths and punchions, superinduc’d
with a course mortar made of loam and straw, do to this day inclose
divers humble cottages, sheads and out-houses in the countrey; and ’tis
strong and lasting for such purposes, whole, or cleft, and I have seen
ample enclosures of courts and gardens so secur’d.
6. There is a compendious expedient for the thickning of copp’ces which
are too transparent, by laying of a sampler or pole of an hasel, ash,
poplar, &c. of twenty or thirty foot in length (the head a little
lopp’d) into the ground, giving it a chop near the foot, to make it
succumb; this fastned to the earth with a hook or two, and cover’d with
some fresh mould at a competent depth (as gardeners lay their
carnations) will produce a world of suckers, thicken and furnish a
copp’ce speedily. I add no more of filberts, a kinder and better sort
of hasel-nut, of larger and longer shape and beard; the kernels also
cover’d with a fine membrane, of which the red is more delicate: They
both are propagated as the hasel, and while more domestick, planted
either asunder, or in palisade, are seldom found in the copp’ces: They
are brought among other fruit, to the best tables for desert, and are
said to fatten, but too much eaten, obnoxious to the asthmatic. In the
mean time, of this I have had experience; that hasel-nuts, but the
filberd specially, being full ripe, and peel’d in warm water, (as they
blanch almonds) make a pudding very little (if at all) inferior to that
our ladies make of almonds. But I am now come to the water-side; let us
next consider the aquatic.
FOOTNOTES:
{136:1} _De nucum generibus_, vide Macrob. Sect. L. II. C. 14.
{136:2}
Plantis & duræ coryli nascuntur....................
_Georg. 2._
{139:1} Vallemont, _Physique occult ou traite de la baguet divinitoire,
&c._ But concerning the exploration, and superstitious original, see Sir
Thomas Brown, _Vulg. Err._ cap. xxiv. sect. 17. and the commentators
upon 4. Hosea. 12.