234 PRUNING. 



Lopping. In countries where fuel is scarce or 

 dear, hedge-row trees are pollarded and periodically 

 lopped for domestic purposes, and for fencing-stuff. 

 Oak, elm, and ash, are chosen for this barbarous pur- 

 pose. The boles are preserved as the property of the 

 landlord, and the loppings that of the tenant. The 

 trunks soon become hollow, and consequently useless 

 as timber. Willow pollards are extensively planted 

 and maintained in low meadows. The great advan- 

 tage of growing poles, stakes, and headers, for fencing 

 in this manner, is, because they are out of the reach 

 of cattle, requiring no fencing, as a piece of land 

 occupied for the same purpose would do. 



Willow-holts, for supplying basketmakers' rods, 

 are usually cut every year. In this management it 

 is observable, that every new crop of shoots are per- 

 fected by a new growth of roots. The centre of a 

 willow pollard, and that of a stool soon decay ; and in 

 the rotten mass, roots from the superior buds and 

 shoots are seen to strike and luxuriate. The spec- 

 tacle of a hollow willow-tree being partly filled with 

 roots, which, from time to time have descended from 

 the shoots of the head, gave Dr. Darwin, it is pro- 

 bable, the first idea of the wood of the stem being 

 formed by descending radicles from the buds. But 

 this example of the willow, when duly considered, is 

 no corroboration of the doctor's notion. The shoots 

 of willow, or of any other tree, it is perfectly true, 

 are prolonged by the assistance of radicles simulta- 

 neously produced. The doctor's idea is, that these 

 two members are immediately connected, and that 



