1 907.] 



Cricket Bat Willow. 



465 



when planted, are 8 to 10 ft. or even more in length. " Sets " 

 of about this length are preferred, so that the young growths 

 may be out of reach of cattle, &c., and the young trees away 

 from the various dangers that beset them when they are near 

 the ground. They are also suitable for thrusting in hedgerows 

 and such like situations. Care should be taken to prevent 

 cattle from injuring the stems. In some places willows are 

 being pollarded for the especial purpose of producing " sets " 

 of the desired size. 



The willow is one of the most easily propagated of all trees, 

 for every twig will grow, and the use of cuttings made ol 

 shoots as thick as a goose-quill and, say, 1 ft. long, is recom- 

 mended. Cuttings of this character, planted in the Arboretum 

 nursery at Kew in the spring, were 6 ft. high in August. 

 For thicker wood the cuttings may be proportionately longer. 

 These can be put in the ground in autumn or early spring. 

 As they grow it would be necessary to keep them each to a 

 single leader and to prune back the side branches and remove 

 the lower ones as the plants grow in height. In well-kept 

 nursery ground fine healthy plants could be produced in two 

 or three seasons, and they could be grown to planting-out size 

 at the rate of 8,000 or more to the acre. 



Whilst these willows like abundant moisture, a position by 

 the side of water is not necessary. Fine specimens are grown 

 in deep, rather heavy clay, with only an ordinary hedge-row 

 ditch on one side, and timber grown in such a position is 

 preferred to that of trees growing close to the edge of ponds, &c. 



Young trees should be watched to see that they are kept to a 

 single leading shoot. This will obviate the forking of the 

 trunk low down, which, of course, detracts from the value of the 

 tree by reducing the amount of good timber. Trees, however, 

 are more liable to fork when growing in isolated positions than 

 they are when close together in plantations. 



The article in the Kew Bulletin is illustrated and contains a 

 botanical description of the willows considered. 



(2409) 



2 G 



