492 ULMUS CAMPC^TKIS 



In many parts of I>ritaiii. llu^ wycli elm. (rimus c. mniitaiia,) or uiicli Iiazol, 

 as it is still occasionally calK'il, has loiii^ b(;fii coiisuk'rcii a jtrcscrvativr a^iaiiist 

 witches; ])rol)ahly i'roni the coiucidciice between the words vyrli and irilrh. In 

 some of the midland comities, even at the present day, it is said that a lilile 

 cavity is made in the churn, to receive a small portion of witch hazel, wiilinnt 

 which, the dairy-maids imagine thai tliey wonld not be able "to gel the bniirr 

 to come." In the early ages of Christianity, the lluropean hnnters were accus- 

 tomed to hang the skins of the wolves they had killed in the chase, on the elms 

 ill the cliurchyards, as a kind of trophy.* 



Soil (tml SiliKition. The Ulmns campcstris deliglits in a sound, sweet, and 

 fertile soil, which is ratlier moist and loamy ; and thrives best in an open situa- 

 tion, such as good pasture gronnds in the vicinity of rivers, or smaller streams. 

 "The propriety of planting the elm,' says Marshall, in his work on "Planting 

 and Rural Ornament," "depends entirely upon the soil. It is the height of folly 

 to plant it upon light sandy soil. There is not, generally speaking, a good elm 

 in the whole county of Norfolk. By the time they arrive at the size of a man's 

 waist, they begin to decay at the heart; and, if not taken at the critical time, 

 they presently become useless as timber. This is the case in all light soils. It 

 is in stiff, strong land which the elm delights. It is observable, however, that 

 here it grows comparatively slow. In light land, especially if it be rich, its 

 growth is very rapid; but its wood is light, porous, and of little value, compared 

 with that grown upon strong land, which is of a closer, stronger texture, and at 

 the heart will have the colour, and almost the hardness and heaviness of iron. 

 On such soils, the elm becomes profitable, and is one of the four cardinal trces^ 

 which ought, above all others, to engage the planter's attention; it will bear a 

 very wet situation." 



Propagation and Culture. The Ulmus campestris produces an abundance 

 of suckers from the roots, both near and at a considerable distance from the stem ; 

 and throughout Europe, these afford the most ready mode of propagation, and 

 that which appears to have been most generally adopted till the establishment of 

 regular commercial nurseries ; the suckers having been procured from the roots 

 of grown-up trees, in hedge-rows, parks or plantations. In Britain, the present 

 mode of propagation is by layers from stocks,! OJ" by grafting on the Scotch elm 

 (Ulmus c. montana.) The layers are made in autumn, or in the course of the 

 winter, and become sufficiently rooted to be taken off in a year. Grafting is 

 generally performed by the "whip" or "splice" mode, near the root, in spring; 

 and the plants make shoots of three or four feet in length the same year. Few 

 plants succeed more readily by grafting than the elm; so much so, that when 

 the graft is made close to the surface of the soil, and the scion tied on with mat- 

 ting, the mere earthing of the plants from the soil, in the intervals between the 

 rows, will serve as a substitute for claying. It has been recommended that the 

 graft be made six or eight inches above the collar, in order to lessen the risk of 

 the scion, when it becomes a tree throwing out roots, which, as is the case with 

 many of the varieties, would become troublesome by their suckers. Budding is 

 sometimes performed, but less frequently. On the continent of Europe, plants 



* See Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum, iii. p. 1382 ; also Woodland Gleanings, p. 30 et seq. 



t The process of producing layers consists in bending the 

 young branches of trees and shrubs into the soil to a certain 

 depth, and elevating their tops above the surface of the ground, 

 in an upward direction, as denoted in the adjoining figure. In 

 time, the buried parts of these branches take root, and finally 

 become perfect plants. The ground should be kept quite clear 

 of weeds, and the la)''ers should be watered in dry weather ; 

 and, when sufficiently rooted, they should be carefully sepa- 

 rated from the stool, or parent plant, with all the rootlets attached to them, and planted in nursery 

 lines, or in the situations where they are permanently to remain. 



