ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. " 53 



are, also, very useful when planted on soils subject to 

 be worn away by streams, which flood them in spring, 

 and by the ice brought down by rivers. The willow is 

 much employed to retain the earth on the naked sides 

 of mountains, and to obstruct the rush of those des- 

 tructive torrents which carry off the soil from the 

 declivities and slopes of hilly lands. 



27. — Leaves and flowers of the Mountain-ash. 



When willows are cut for firewood, it should be done 

 do! lard-fashion, an operation which I will explain when 

 I come to treat of tree-pruning, and which I recommend 

 especially to the attention of the settlers on the North- 

 West prairies. Live hedges, and very strong if not 

 pretty ones, too, may be made from the willow, and 

 every three or four years they will furnish a fair firewood. 

 Cuttings are made as usual, and are inserted in the 

 ground a foot apart. A hedge is thus formed in two 

 years, which is doubly useful : as a fence and for the 



