THE SOFTWOODS 193 
sense advice still to a great extent holds good, 
that ‘Sallyes grow much faster, if they are 
planted within reach of water, or in a very moorish 
ground, or flat plain; and where the soil is, by 
reason of extraordinary moisture, unfit for Arable, 
or Meadow; for in these cases it is an extra- 
ordinary improvement. In a word, where Birch, 
and Alder will thrive.’ 
No forest trees are easier of propagation than 
willows. Layering is very simple when seedlings 
are already on the ground, while slips or cuttings, 
called * ¢runchions’ in olden days, take root easily. 
Such sets put out in spring are best made of 
the last year’s wood, as they strike readily and 
grow rapidly, the object in view being thus 
attained more speedily than by means of seed. 
Hence sowing of tree-willows is not the usual 
method of forming or reproducing plantations. 
Root-suckers, like those so characteristic of 
aspens, are not thrown up by willows, though many 
of their stool-shoots look very much like true 
stoles. All three chief kinds of the tree-willows 
attain a very large size, ranging up to seventy 
feet in height, and with a girth of about three feet 
in diameter. Indeed, the Bedford often exceeds 
N 
