Seed Nursery for Oak and Forest-Tree Seedlings (Evelyn's Sylva, 1706)

"A very small plantarium or nursery will in a few years people a vast extent of ground."

Pick ground that is well fenced, facing south-east rather than full south, sheltered from north and west. Break it up the winter before sowing so it mellows (deeper in clay), as you would for wheat, or trench it with a spade. Stir it again just before sowing.

Gather acorns, beech mast, ash keys or nuts when they drop ripe, from fair thriving trees. Keep each kind apart.

At the end of October (or about February on lighter ground), when the soil is moderately dry and not raining, open rills 4-5 in deep in straight lines 2 ft apart. Drop the seed in not too thick, or set nuts and acorns one by one like beans, and cover well with a rake. Six bushels of acorns sow an acre at a foot apart.

Water gently into a shallow basin round each plant, never with a strong stream on the stem. After hard frosts earth up the young plants that the swelling soil pushes out.

When the seedlings are about an inch high, in moist weather draw them where too thick and prick them into empty beds a foot apart, leaving the rest 2 or 3 ft apart.

In June dig lightly between them and scatter half-rotten litter, fern, bean haulm or old leaves to keep the roots cool and moist; chop it into the soil the next March. Repeat for two or three years, until the kernel's food is spent in the plant.

Take up the young trees with care for their roots and, where the kind will bear it, cut the stem to within an inch of the ground; plant them where they are to grow. Some cut again after March of the second year at half a foot. Use a very sharp knife and do not loosen the root.

From John Evelyn, **Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest-Trees** (text of the 1706 edition, London reprint 1908), Book I, Chap. II (checked on the archive.org scan sylvaordiscourse01evelrich, pp. 12-17). The metric figures are ours.