14 TREE-PLANTING. 



are apt to grow out crooked, and thick, and clubby 

 next the stools, with branching twigs above, instead 

 of drawing one another up in a slender form. 



For the larger sort of osiers, the sets are cut from 

 the thick, or lower part of the rods, generally about 

 the thickness of the little ringer, for although the sets 

 from the small ends strike quickly, and grow well, 

 they always throw out comparatively small shoots. 



On the other hand, in some parts of France, where 

 they require small slender rods for making fine 

 baskets, they cut the sets into small pieces, and lay 

 them in drills a short distance apart, which causes 

 the shoots to spring out at various points from the 

 buried set, and an upright shoot will start from almost 

 every eye. 



In mending plantations of osiers, the usual method 

 followed is, to select the longest, and smoothest rods 

 of the kind required, and to cut their but-ends in a 

 slanting direction, and stick them into the ground 

 beside the dead stool to the depth of nine inches, 

 but not to shorten them, as in the case of making 

 a new plantation. The reason for this method of 

 procedure is, that if they were shortened, they would 

 be smothered by the shoots of the older stools, before 

 they had time to establish themselves ; but by leaving 

 them long, they enjoy full light for a considerable 

 part of the summer, before the others can catch them 

 up, to shade them, but after two years they are cut 

 back to the height of the old stools. A few of the 

 stools die every season, so that the beds require to be 

 constantly looked over and examined ; and in ex- 

 ceptional seasons, when mild weather has been 

 succeeded by very cold, in March and April, there 



