METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 9 



birch, four of willow, the cotton-wood, the yellow pine, the red cedar, 

 and two species of fir. Besides these trees there are many shrubs, 

 some of which are tree-like and reach a height of twenty feet. One 

 living where such trees are natives will hardly need to look elsewhere 

 for trees, whether for fuel, timber, or the purposes of art and orna- 

 ment. But one may also be pretty sure that where these grow other 

 well-known and valuable trees can be successfully cultivated. 



And there are some trees which are deserving of more attention than 

 has yet been given them in this country. The willows, for instance, 

 have seldom been cultivated in a large way ; and yet there are few 

 trees so easily grown, or which will pay better for cultivation. They 

 adapt themselves to a wide range of soil and climate. They grow on 

 high ground and on gravelly soils not less than by the sides of streams, 

 where we most commonly see them. They are of rapid growth and 

 yield a large return. The osier-willow is specially useful, we know, 

 for the manufacture of baskets, chairs, and other articles of furniture, 

 and we import it to the extent of $5,000,000 annually, when we might 

 produce it easily in almost any part of our country. "We hardly think 

 of the willow as a timber-tree or for the production of lumber, but 

 only as yielding a cheap, poor sort of fuel. But in England the wood 

 is greatly prized for many purposes. While it is light it is also tough; 

 it does not break into slivers. Hardly any wood is so good, therefore, 

 for the linings of carts and wagons used in drawing stone or other 

 rough and heavy articles. It makes excellent charcoal, especially for 

 the manufacture of gunpowder. It bears exposure to the weather, and 

 boards made of it are very serviceable for fences. Some species of it 

 are admirable for use as a live fence or hedge. On account of its com- 

 parative incombustibility, the willow is eminently useful for the floors 

 of buildings designed to be fire-proof. It grows to a large size and 

 furnishes a great amount of lumber. There is a white willow growing 

 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which, at four feet from the ground, 

 measures twenty-two feet in circumference and extends its branches 

 fifty feet in every direction. Tradition says it was brought from 

 Connecticut in 1807 by a traveler, who used it as a riding-switch. 

 The Hon. Jesse W. Fell, in giving an account of experiments in tree- 

 planting, on an extensive scale, in Illinois, says, " Were I called upon 

 to designate one tree which, more than all others, I would recommend 

 for general planting, I would say unhesitatingly it should be the white 

 willow." Professor Brewer says : " In England, where it is often sixty 

 or seventy feet high in twenty years, there is no wood in greater 

 demand than good willow. It is light, very tough, soft, takes a good 

 finish, wiH bear more pounding and knocks than any other wood grown 

 there, and hence its use for cricket-bats, for floats to paddle-wheels 

 of steamers, and brake-blocks on cars. It is used extensively for turn- 

 ing, planking coasting-vessels, furniture, ox-yokes, wooden legs, shoe- 

 lasts, etc." Fuller says, "It groweth incredibly fast it being a by- 



