PLANTING ON LANDS WITH ALLUVIAL SOIL. 147 



CHAPTER I. 



FOREST PLANTING ON LANDS WITH ALLUVIAL SOIL. 



In our State we have a great amount of alluvial soil 

 formed by the deposits of the many rivers and rivulets 

 which descend from our hills and mountains. This soil 

 mostly contains such favorable mixture of earthy and 

 mineral substances as to promote all vegetation to the 

 highest degree — and on such places, agriculture lays its 

 exclusive and well-founded claims. But there are among 

 them many low sites which, being subjected to oft- 

 repeated inundations, cannot be used for agricultural 

 purposes, and yet may be utilized advantageously for the 

 cultivation of willows. 



Although the willow is not considered as being a 

 forest-tree proper, the management of large forests, 

 especially that of mountain forests, requires often the 

 propagation and cultivation of willows on an extensive 

 scale, because they chiefly furnish the material to bind 

 the drifting sand, and to hold the loose soil along the 

 banks of streams in place. For this purpose — as we will 

 see in Part Hi — those kinds are cultivated which retain 

 their shape as shrubs; while the tree-like kinds are 

 used to serve as pollards, (see page 133 Note*). The 

 propagation is effected by cuttings — see page 67 — and 

 in the management of the willow shrubs along the banks 

 of rivers, exposed to inundations we resort to a coppice 

 treatment with short rotations from eight to ten years, 

 the rods retaining up to that age the pliability, by 

 which they are able to withstand the pressure of the 

 invading waters, and to break their force without being 

 broken themselves. If they are allowed to grow older. 



