92 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



The proper mode of fastening the branches to the 

 rails is not to be overlooked, and ought to be provided 

 for in every garden. How often does it happen that 

 for want of a few willow trees, the easiest of all things 

 to cultivate, recourse is had to tying with pack thread, 

 or strands of bass matting the latter giving way in 

 high winds, and leaving the tree to its fate, the for- 

 mer indeed keeping its hold, but cutting into the 

 bark, and producing diseased growth, which is sure 

 to terminate in canker. It is therefore a great 

 thing for the comfort of your garden to have plenty 

 of willows ; there is no doing without baskets, and 

 the twigs required for tying are innumerable. Several 

 varieties of the willow tribe answer well enough, but 

 the black and the golden are the best; and these, 

 like most things of a more delicate essence, are not 

 the easiest to be had. From slips they do not so 

 certainly strike root, at least on a dry soil, but by a 

 little care in choosing a shady place of some moisture 

 you get rooted plants which may be set any where. 

 It is better to have them planted at random in the 

 shrubbery than in regular crops, which, both by show 

 and convenience, attract the cupidity of tinkers ; and 

 to have some growing up as trees, (the golden is 

 very ornamental,) and some cut over by the ground. 

 The former, in their tree or shrub form, with numer- 

 ous but short twigs, are not tempting to thieves the 

 latter will be well hid ; and both, as they afford shoots 

 of all sizes, will answer all your purposes. The 

 tying of espaliers with an abundant provision of wil- 

 lows possessed of unfailing toughness, and admitting 

 of so great despatch, is one of the pleasantest opera- 

 tions of the garden. The appropriate knot, you will 



