FORESTRY MANUAL. 7 



A fence made of rails split from this tree in summer and peeled, twenty- 

 two years ago, has had but few rails supplied, though nearly all of the orig- 

 inal Bur oak posts have been replaced. 



As fuel, it is about equal to pine. Mixed in groves, it gives an agreeable 

 expression, resultifig-from the soft green of the trunk, the lightness of the 

 branches, and the ever moving character of the foliage. 



As with all the family, this tree grows readily from cuttings, and its cat- 

 kins grow as readily as the eottonwood. 



WHITE WILLOW. 



This tree is being extensively planted as a combined stock-barrier and 

 wind-break— but few trees have been planted as yet in timber belts— in fact 

 the general impression, even of the friends of the. willow, is that it has lit- 

 tle value either for fuel or any other use connected with farm improvement, 

 aside from that for which it has been so extensively planted. In Europe, 

 however, the White willow is regarded as a valuable timber tree, and the 

 time will come when it will be so regarded in the prairie States. We have 

 become so wedded to the use of pine lumber for building purposes that the 

 idea of using the poplars and the willow in its place, grown on our own 

 ground, and cut up with cheap portable mills in our own yards, we are slow 

 in acquiring — but with the coming scarcity, and advance in price of pine 

 lumber, we will become more teachable. , 



It grows rapidly, often to the height of thirty feet in ten years, and attain- 

 ing a height of over eighty feet. 



Large cuttings planted in spring or fall, as with poplars, furnish the 

 easiest method of starting the grove, or the combined wind-break and stock- 

 barrier. 



Perhaps no tree raised in the northwest will produce as many cords of 

 wood to the acre in a given time as this, and the readiness, vigor and rapid- 

 ity of growth with which it reproduces itself from the stump when the top 

 has been cut off, as well as the adaptability of the timber to various farm 

 uses, recommend it for extensive planting. No one of our trees will, like 

 it, make a live fence and a fence from which we can take stakes, poles and 

 fire-wood, without weakening the fence as a stock-barrier. 



WHITE POPLAR. 



This beautiful tree is usually voted a nuisance as an ornamental or shade 

 tree, on account of its wonderful tendency for suckering. 



In groves, this habit would prove no drawback to its culture — it is prob- 

 able that we have no tree that will reach saw-log size as soon as this. Trees 

 in this State are plenty, two feet in diameter, with a growth of only fifteen 

 years. Isolated trees head low and have wide, spreading tops. In groves, it 

 runs up tall and straight, and the poles taken out in thinning reach a size 

 suitable for nailing on fence posts, and even for rafters and sleepers in 



