The Hawthorn is found in most parts of Europe, and appears to have been of use in England from a very early period, as in all old works on husbandry ample directions are given for the planting and cultivation of the Thorn. In Tusser's Five Hundred Points in Good Husbandry we find the following directions:
Go plough or delve up, advised with skill,
The breadth of a ridge, and in length as you will;
Where speedy quickset for a fence you will draw,
To sow in the seed of the bramble and Haw.
If intended for seed, the haws should not be gathered until the end of October, when they become blackish; and even then they rarely vegetate before the second year. The proper mode of preparing them is as follows:—If you do not sow them immediately, as soon as they are gathered, spread them on an airy floor for five or six weeks, till the seeds are dry and firm; then plunge them into water, and divest them wholly of their pulp by rubbing them between your hands with a little sand; spread them again on the loft three or four days, till quite dry; mix them with fine loose sandy mould, in quantity not less than the bulk of the seeds, and lay them in a heap against a south wall, covering them over, three or four inches deep, with soil of the same quality as that with which they are mixed. If you do not sow them in the spring, in this situation let them remain till the second spring, as the seeds, if sown, will not appear the first year. That the berries may be as equally mixed with the soil as possible, turn over the heaps once in two months, blending the covering with the seeds, and, at every turning, give them a fresh covering in the winter months. They should be sown the first dry weather in February, or the beginning of March. Separate them from the loose soil in which they were mixed, with a wire sieve. The ground should be good, dry, fresh land, well prepared, and the seeds beat down with the back of a spade, and then covered about half an inch thick with mould; or they may be dropped in drills about eight inches apart.
The utility of the Hawthorn is chiefly for fences. The wood is hard, and the root of an old Thorn is an excellent material for boxes and combs, and is curiously and naturally wrought. It is white, but of a somewhat yellow hue, and is capable of a very high polish.
THE HAZEL-TREE.
[Corylus.[G] Nat. Ord.—Amentiferæ; Linn.—Monœc. Polyan.]