CHAP. CIII.

SALICa'cE/E. SA'LIX.

1469

to imbibe the oozing water. They ought, therefore, either to be open drains,or drains built on the sides, and covered over with flags, to prevent theirbeing choked up with the roots. A variety of cases may, however, occur,where it will be impossible to form covered drains ; or where, perhaps, theexpense might operate as a prohibition to doing so with the view of plantingwillows. In such cases, the ground may be formed into beds of a less orgreater size, according to circumstances, by open cuts, or drains, of a sufficientwidth and depth to keep the soil dry. These open drains will require to becleaned out every autumn and spring; and the cleanings may be scatteredover the general surface of the beds. In preparing ground for an osier plan-tation, if the soil be poor, it should be as well dressed with dung as if it wereintended for a crop of wheat or barley. The manure most proper for willowsis stable dung.” (Plant. Kal., p. 526.) Sang “tried lime as a manure forwillows, but found the twigs much fired, or spotted, with a sort of canker; and,in attempting to bend them, they readily broke over at the cankered place.Indeed, if a plantation of osiers be formed previously to a thorough preparationof the soil for the reception of the plants, the saving of the first expense will befound a most severe loss in the end, by the diminution of the crop in the suc-ceeding seasons. In no case should a plantation of willows be attempted,but in prepared ground; except, perhaps, where a few rows may be intro-duced upon the very brink of a river, or on the top of the banks of ditches,which form, in many instances, the barrier of the waters, where the soil canscarcely be dug or otherwise ameliorated. Nothing can be farther from beinggood management than planting the truncheons in grass land, and allowingthe sward to remain green under, or among the crop. Having fixed uponthe spot, and having also carefully prepared the ground, the next step is toprocure plants. These should be of the last year’s wood, or of shoots of oneyear old, taken from -the under end of well-ripened shoots of good size,and cut in a slanting direction, with a sharp knife; and they should be inlengths of 1 ft. or 1 ft. 4 in. Every vigorous shoot will afford two or threeplants. The upper end, as far as it appears soft, being unripe, should be dis-carded ; because such wood will only produce weak plants, and will notmake such good roots the first season, as the firmer parts of the shoots willho. Pieces of two-years-old shoots of the same length, and cut in the samemanner, may also be used; but these are more expensive, and not better forthe purpose, than the former. The distances at which osiers for baskets orwickerwork ought to be planted are 18 in. between the rows, and 12 in.apart in the rows. This distance will not be too thick for at least five or sixyears; but, after that period, every alternate plant should he stubbed up;which will leave those remaining at 2 ft. apart in the rows.” (Ibid., p. 529.)‘ Osier plantations,” Sang continues, “ must be carefully hoed and cleanedevery year. Nothing contributes more to the raising of a good crop of twigs,after due preparation of the soil, than keeping it and the plants clean. Thestools should he carefully attended to annually, from the first year of pro-ducing a crop of twigs, in order to keep them clear of rotten stumps, and notto allow them to be overcrowded at the bottoms of the shoots. When thesehave become too numerous, they should be carefully thinned out, and also cutdown, leaving only an eye or two at the bottom of each, until they be dimi-nished to such a number as the stool is capable of supporting with vigourthroughout the season. A basket-maker finds more service from one shoot ofo ft. or 8 ft. in length, than from four of 3 ft. in length; and one of the firstdimensions will not exhaust the stool or the land so much as four of theothers. The proper season for cleaning and thinning the stocks is from the1st of March to the middle of April.” ( Ibid., p. 530.) The rationale ofchopsmg this season for the operation of cleaning the plants is, that, if it wereperformed in the autumn, the germs of the buds existing at the base of thesmall shoots cleaned off would swell in the course of the winter, and beable to throw out shoots in the following spring; whereas, by delaying thecutung off of these till the sap is in motion, the germs remain dormant, the