CHAP, xiv S Y L V A 129 



being made with a sharp hard stake, fill'd with water, 

 and then with fine earth pressed in, and close about 

 them) when once rooted, may be cut at six inches 

 above ground ; and thus placed at a yard distant, they 

 will immediately furnish a kind of copp'ce. But in 

 case you plant them of rooted trees, or smaller sets, 

 fix them not so deep ; for though we bury the trunch- 

 ions thus profound, yet is the root which they strike, 

 commonly but shallow. They will make prodigious 

 shoots in 15, or 16 years ; but then the heads must 

 by no means be diminish'd, but the lower branches 

 may, yet not too far up ; the foot would also be 

 cleansed every second year. This for the white. The 

 black poplar is frequently pollar'd when as big as one's 

 arm, eight or nine foot from the ground, as they trim 

 them in Italy, for their vines to serpent and twist on, 

 and those they poll, or head every second year, spar- 

 ing the middle, streight, and thrivingest shoot, and at 

 the third year cut him also. There be yet that con- 

 demn the pruning of this poplar, as hindring their 

 growth. 



2. The shade of this tree is esteemed very whol- 

 some in Summer, but they do not become walks, or 

 avenues by reason of their suckers, and that they foul 

 the ground at fall of the leaf ; but they would be 

 planted in barren woods, and to flank places at distance, 

 for their increase, and the glittering brightness of their 

 foliage : The leaves are good for cattel, which must 

 be stripp'd from the cut boughs before they are fag- 

 goted. This to be done in the decrease of October, 

 and reserv'd in bundles for winter-fodder. The wood 

 of white poplar is sought of the sculptor, and they 

 saw both sorts into boards, which, where they lie dry, 

 continue a long time. Of this material they also 



