PLANTATIONS OF OSIERS. [App. I. 



at the bottom of each, until they be diminished to suck 

 a number as the stool is capable of supporting with vi- 

 gour throughout the season. A basket-maker finds 

 more service from a shoot of six or eight feet in length, 

 than from four of three feet in length ; and one of the 

 first dimensions will not exhaust the stool or the land* 

 so much as four of the others. 



The proper season for cleaning and thinning the 

 Stocks, is from the first of March to the middle of 

 April. It is done by a sharp knife, and if it has been 

 regularly attended to from the establishment of the 

 plantation, it is neither troublesome nor expensive. In- 

 deed, this care is necessary, were it only for keeping 

 them clean of destructive insects. We have seen seve- 

 ral instances of neglected stools proving a harbourage 

 of insects, which have eaten up the crop. 



Willows are generally planted by being pushed into 

 the ground by the hand, which must be well defended 

 by a piece of strong leather ; but sometimes, in push- 

 ing in the cutting, the bark is pressed off. In order to 

 prevent this, it is better to use a common dibble shod 

 with iron, and have them planted by it, like ordinary 

 planting in ' the nursery. Where the ground is any 

 way hard, or where there is a danger of pushing off 

 the bark, they should be planted so as to leave five or 

 six inches above ground, that, when it may become 

 necessary, the top of the stool may be cut off, in order 

 to renovate them. This may happen to be in ten or 

 twelve years after planting ; and the practice will be 

 found of considerable advantage. It is a matter of in- 

 difference whether the cuttings be planted in a- sloping 

 or perpendicular position. 



Some have advised to plant a crop of potatoes among 

 |he new planted willow cuttings \ but this method is 

 |ughly destructive 10 the new iormcd plantation. In 



deed, 



