HRITIMI FOREST TREES 333 



round the This method is also frequently used in the 



filling up of blanks ; it yields good results with slips about 

 two feet long, which are easily protected against rank growth 

 of grass. According to Uurckhardt the cost of the formation 

 and tending of osier-beds, up to the end of the first year, is 

 in Northern Germany ^4 to ^5 per acre, when slips are put 

 out on light sandy soil requiring no costly preparation, and 

 6 \6s. to ^9 4^., when beds have been raised between 

 ditches, and slips are put out in the ordinary manner in 

 rows. 



Reproduction of Osier-beds. Natural regeneration of 

 willows takes place partly by means of spontaneous 

 layering, partly through seed ; true stoles like those of 

 the aspen are not formed, although shoots spring from 

 dormant buds on roots exposed to the air. For spontaneous 

 growth from seed, favourable circumstances are necessary, 

 as, after the seed is shed in early June, it has a compara- 

 tively small chance of germinating and asserting itself owing 

 to the growth of grass. And in general but little use is 

 made of willow seedlings, except when they are handy and 

 easily obtainable for the filling up of blanks, for which 

 purpose their bushy growth and straight twigs make them 

 very well adapted. The artificial production of seedlings on 

 osier-beds is generally unremunerative and unadvisable, for 

 the same object can be satisfactorily and much more speedily 

 attained by the use of slips. In nurseries, therefore, 

 seedlings are only reared when wished for ornamental 

 puri>oses or for pollards, as then they yield the more durable 

 stems. 



The usual method of reproduction of the osier-beds is by 

 the natural growth of stool-si mot* alter the existing crop of 

 withes has been removed ly coppicing. The harvesting 

 should take place by means of a sharp, clean, almost 

 horizontal cut as close as possible to the stool, and although 



