PLANTING ON LANDS WITH ALLUVIAL SOIL. 140 



dious in regard to the soil, growing well not only on 

 moist but also on dry, sandy soil, and even on swampy 

 lands. It can endure the heat and cold as well as moisture 

 and dryness. The profits of a willow plantation are very 

 large. In Germany they used to be as high as $80 per 

 acre. The cultivation is comparatively easy. The nat- 

 ural homes of the willow are the banks of rivers and the 

 low bottom lands subjected to temporary inundations. 

 The soil best adapted for a permanent willow plantation 

 is a moist humus with a sandy subsoil. There is no kind 

 of tree with which water plays so important a part as the 

 willow. It is true the willow likes a moist soil which 

 may sometimes be even entirely overflowed, but the 

 water should not remain for too long a time and, there- 

 fore, in places where this occurs, drainage should be 

 resorted to. 



Willow plantations require a thorough cultivation with 

 deep plowing and subsoiling to the depth of 18 

 inches. If expenses are no obstacle, spading in such a 

 way as to turn the subsoil up and spread it over the 

 humus is to be preferred. Then the roots of the young 

 plants have the benefit of the fertile soil, while the in- 

 fertile subsoil on the top prevents the growth of weeds. 

 For spring planting — and this is in our State preferable 

 to fall planting — ^the ground should be fully prepared 

 during the preceding fall before the first frost appears 

 and exposed to the action of the frost and air during 

 the winter. The cuttings should be made late in the 

 fall, when vegetation has come to rest, about 12 inches 

 long, from vigorous and sound main shoots, using only 

 the lower half of them. They should be kept during 

 the winter, bundled up in moist sand in a place which 

 is free frOm frost. They are planted from one to two 

 feet apart in rows, which are wide enough to allow the 

 soil between them to be worked, in order to eradicate 



