250

A DISCOURSE

•Book i. ten feet about) and is fit to be planted on high banks, and ditch sides*within reach of water, and the weeping sides of bills, because it extendsits roots deeper than either Sallows or Willows. For this reason, youshould plant 'them at ten or twenty feet distance; and though'they growthe slowest of all the twiggy trees, yet do they recompense it with the largercrop, the wood being tough, and the twigs fit to bind strongly; the very

of the situation. Watery ground, by the sides of navigable rivers, planted in this- manner,,will produce a greater price per acre; because near such-places fchere,generally residea number of basket-makers, who, having the cqnveniency of water-carriage, can send theirwork, with more ease to distant places.

Plantations of these kinds may not only be regularly made to .great advantage on wateryand, by the sides of rivers, but the very islands, or rtny^parf wh-tre there, is mud or earth,may be planted this way, to the great profit of the proprietor. , And here suffer me to giveone caution in the planting of these places: Let the rows, which should always ran thesame way with the stream, be at a greater distance from each other, and the-cuttings pro-portionably closer in the rows. I advise the distance of the rows to be greater in theseplaces, that the floods may have free liberty to carry off the sludge, which would otherwisebe detained to the prejudice of the sets. Plantations of Willows to be, cut down everysix or seven years for poles, should be raised in the same manner, remembering that thesets should be placed ata greater distance, viz. one yard; but When designed for hurdles,,to be cut every second or third year, the distance need not be so great.

In order to raise a Salietum, or Plantation of Willows for timber,; the ground must bedug or ploughed; and the cuttings for this purpose should be of the last year’s shoot.They ought to be a foot and a half long, and a foot of each should be thrust into the-ground, at the distance of three feet each way. The latter end of May, or the beginningof June, the plantation should be looked over ; when such sets as have shot out too luxu-riantly should have all the branches removed, except the strongest leading shoot. Allthis summer and the next, the weeds must be kept down; afterwards, the trees will demandno farther care till the time of thinning, which will be in about five or six years. Whenthe branches interfere with each other, the weakest tree should be grubbed up and takenaway, to make room for the remainder. In five or six years more they will require a se-cond thinning. In this manner they must be thinned as often as they touch one another,till the trees are arrived to their full maturity. By planting the cuttings a yard asunder atfirst, and afterwards thinning of them, they not only draw each other up, and by that meansaspire to a great height, but the plants taken away to make room for the strongest, willbring in a.considerable profit when sold as poles.

The sorts used for plantations of these trees have hitherto been the common white andred Willow. These, however, seem now to give place to other kinds which have beenlately introduced.

Sets proper to be planted by the sides of ditches, &c. for pollards, should be nine feetin length, two feet and a half of which must be thrust into the ground, having first pre-pared the way by driving down a crow, or some such instrument, to prevent the bark from