8 OSIERS AND WILLOWS 



I use for grubbing purposes a tool specially de- 

 signed to lever the old stumps out of the ground 

 (see illustration, Fig. 2). The tool should be of much 

 use to willow growers in the future, as it will enable 

 the work to be done quicker and at less expense, since, 

 when the old stumps have been cleared, the land may 

 be ploughed as indicated above. 



In Berkshire and East Anglia the beds are replanted 

 with sets in* the following spring, and in both districts 

 there are many fields that have been cropped with 

 willows continuously for over a hundred years. The 

 practice, however, is not advisable in all districts, and 

 in Somerset the growers prefer to give their land a 

 short change before replanting. There, the land 

 which has been cleared of the old stumps and dug over 

 is left fallow for a summer ; in the autumn it is ploughed 

 up into ridges and replanted with sets during the 

 following spring. Quite recently a few of the growers 

 in thaf district have grown one crop of wheat on the 

 land before replanting it to willows a practice to be 

 commended at the present time. 



Unfortunately the fertile land usually found in the 

 willow districts abounds with weeds of various kinds, 

 and an energetic effort must be made to clean the land 

 by harrowing and dragging it in the spring. In cases 

 where the weeds are very numerous and troublesome, 

 it may be necessary to summer fallow the land, to clean 

 it thoroughly for planting during the following spring. 

 It is highly important that such weeds as dock, rushes, 

 reeds, grasses, pilewort, meadow-sweet, convolvulus, 

 and burnet be cleared off, as they seriously interfere 

 with the growth of willows. Such weeds are difficult 

 to eradicate by cutting when once the willows have 

 been planted. 



