ox GKOWTH AND CULTIVATION OF WILLOWS IN SCOTLAND. 91 



The same variety of tree, iu peat and clay subsoil, at five years 

 old, measures 21 feet high, and at 1 foot from the ground 20 

 inches in girth. 



A tree of S. alhaov Huntingdon, at eight years old, measures 35 

 feet high, and at 1 foot from the ground 33 inches in girth, in 

 rich alluvial soil, and near running water. 



A tree of >S'. alba or Huntingdon, in a dry gravelly soil, and 

 planted same year, at eight years old measures 24 feet high, and 

 at 1 foot from the ground 23 inches in girth. 



A tree of S. alba or Huntingdon, planted the same year in peat, 

 with clay subsoil, at eight years old, measures 26 feet high, and 

 at 1 foot from the gTound 24 inches in girth. 



The above trials confirm the opinion that I have long held, viz., 

 that the soil best adapted for this species of willow is that found 

 on the margin of streams. In page 1520 of Loudon's "Arboretum 

 Britannicum," it is stated that a cutting planted by Mr Brown 

 of Hetherset, JSTorfoIk, became in ten years a tree of 35 feet in 

 height and 5 feet in girth ; and in the same work a tree is men- 

 tioned at Audley End, in Essex, of twenty years' growth, -which 

 was 53 feet high and 7 feet 6 inches in girth. A few years 

 ago I saw six trees of the S. alba felled near Southwell, Notts, 

 thirty-eight years of age, which yielded unitedly 232 feet of 

 measurable timber, and which were sold on the spot at Is. 2d. 

 per cubic foot. 



Lowe, in his Survey of the County of Nottingham, states that 

 so very valuable are willows as plantation trees, that at eight 

 years' gro^vth they yield in poles a net profit of £214 per acre. 

 He does not say that such an amount was actually obtained for 

 the produce of an acre, and I am therefore disposed to think that 

 the amount he names is considerably overstated. The variety 

 named >S'. sanguinea has not, that I am aware of, been tried in 

 either England or Scotland as a timber tree, but it is extensively 

 grown in the Ardennes, makes a very handsome tree, and is a 

 very conspicuous object in the landscape ; it is very hardy, and 

 would stand the climate of Scotland. I have seen it in great 

 perfection on the shores of the Baltic, and have introduced it 

 here, but am not able to give the result of any trials. To grow 

 this species of willow in perfection, it must be planted closely ; 

 the branches grow nearly perpendicular, and have little spread. 

 The cuttings should not be more than three feet apart each way, 

 or 4840 cuttings to the acre. At the end of four or five years 

 they should be thinned out to a quarter of that number, or 1210 ; 

 and at twelve to sixteen years they may be again reduced to 

 about 300 trees, which will leave ample space for theii' full 

 development, and at thirty-six to forty years of age the}' will 

 have attained to full perfection. If they are permitted to stand 

 beyond this time they will rapidly deteriorate. The value of an 



