THE SOFTWOODS 193 



sense advice still to a great extent holds good, 

 that ' Sally es grow much faster, if they are 

 planted within reach of water, or in a very moorish 

 ground, or flat plain ; and where the soil is, by 

 reason of extraordinary moisture, unfit for Arable, 

 or Meadow ; for in these cases it is an extra- 

 ordinary improvement. In a word, where Birch, 

 and Alder will thrive.' 



No forest trees are easier of propagation than 

 willows. Layering is very simple when seedlings 

 are already on the ground, while slips or cuttings, 

 called ' trunchions ' in olden days, take root easily. 

 Such sets put out in spring are best made of 

 the last year's wood, as they strike readily and 

 grow rapidly, the object in view being thus 

 attained more speedily than by means of seed. 

 Hence sowing of tree-willows is not the usual 

 method of forming or reproducing plantations. 

 Root-suckers, like those so characteristic of 

 aspens, are not thrown up by willows, though many 

 of their stool-shoots look very much like true 

 stoles. All three chief kinds of the tree-willows 

 attain a very large size, ranging up to seventy 

 feet in height, and with a girth of about three feet 

 in diameter. Indeed, the Bedford often exceeds 



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