CHAP. CIII.

tfALICA'CFJE. .S'A'i.IX.

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length, and 2 in. in diameter at the lower end. Such shoots make excellenthoops, or rods for cratework, hurdles, and different other wickerworks, and alsorods for tying plants, and for fencing. In good soil, a coppice of thisspecies, will produce the greatest return in poles, hoops, and rods, every five,six, seven, or eight years ; and in middling soil, where it is grown chiefly forfaggot-wood, it will produce the greatest return every three, four, or fiveyears. In bad soil (and on such soil only should it be grown for the leaves),the plants should be cut over every year, or every two years, in the monthof August, and the leaves dried in the same manner as hay, and afterwardsstacked. We are aware that there is a great prejudice in Britain againstfeeding cattle with the shoots of any description of ligneous plant, either in agreen or dried state : but let it be recollected that there is one exception inthe case of the furze; and, if that is found so well worth culture as a herbageplant, why may not the willow be found equally advantageous for a similarpurpose, under particular circumstances of soil, situation, and climate ?

For the coarser description of basketwork, the plants in a coppice-woodmay be cut over every year in the beginning of November. To preserve thevigour of the stools, the shoots should not be cut over when in a green state,in August, for two years in succession; but a crop of the twigs with theleaves on, cut at the end of August, should alternate with a crop of thetwigs without the leaves, cut in the following year in November. (See BoseNouv. Cours. d’Agri., tom xiii. p. 440.) These rules are founded on a prin-ciple laid down by Varrennes de Fenille, that the poorer the soil is, the oftenerthe wood that grows on it ought to be cut over.

The Culture of the Willoio for Hoops. The best sorts for this purpose are& viminalis and S. caprea. It is observed by Dr. Walker, that the S. vimi-nalis was cultivated for hoops, in Holland , from the first establishment of theherring fishery in that country, which, according to M'Culloch, was in 1104 ;or, rather, from the epoch of the Dutch learning to pickle their herrings, andpack them in barrels, which they were taught to do by Beukelson, who died in1397, and to whose memory Charles V. erected a magnificent tomb at Biervliet,near Sluys. The Dutch boors, Dr. Walker informs us, without knowing anything of the sexes of willows, selected those plants of S. viminalis thatappeared to them to be of the most vigorous growth, and thus unintentionallypropagated only the female. As all the plants of S. viminalis grown inScotland were originally obtained from Holland , they are, consequently,almost all females; and we suppose the same thing is the ease in England.We mention this circumstance here, because-it shows the practical use thatmay be made of a botanical knowledge of willows; since, by ordering thefemale only of any given species, the planter may be sure of having all strongand vigorous-growing plants. The soil, for a plantation of hoop willows,ought to be good and deep, well trenched, and even manured, before plantingthe sets. It should be in a situation naturally moist, but so thoroughlydrained as at no time to be stagnated by water. The drains should be attegular distances, so as to throw the surface between them into beds, or compart-ments ; and they may be made open, or built up on the sides, and coveredwith flagstone. If they can be so arranged as to be filled with water atpleasure, in the early part of summer, that circumstance will contributematerially to the rapid growth of the plants. Hoop willows may be grownalong the high banks of rivers or ditches where the extremities of the rootswill reach the water, but where the great body of them are in the soil aboveits level, with perfect success; but it is in vain to plant them upon poor ordry soil, or upon soil, whether rich or poor, which is continually saturatedwith water to within a foot or two of the surface. The cuttings may beplanted in rows 2 ft. apart, and at 18 in. distance in the rows. The shoots pro-uced should not be cut off till the second year after planting; as by this time,as sang observes, “they will generally have formed one strong shoot, with,probably, some inferior twigs. At the first cutting, care must be had not toa ow any parted the small twigs or side shoots to be left, but to cut them