The Alder. 



98. I do not believe^ that, even as underwood, the stems 

 raised from cuttings are any thing like so good as those 

 raised from seed ; but there is no difference in the manner 

 of cultivating. If the plants be raised from seed, they 

 ought, after having been one year removed from the seed- 

 bed, to be put into the plantation at the same distances as 

 directed for the cuttings; and, if they be planted in the 

 fall of the year, they ought to be cut down within an inch 

 of the ground in the next month of April. If they be not 

 planted till late in the spring, it will be best not to cut 

 them down until the spring following; but, cut down they 

 must be, by all means, and very nearly close to the 

 ground. 



99. The Alder will live, and even grow, in pretty dry 

 land; but its delight is in wet, and very wet, land. It likes the 

 sides of running brooks, especially w^here the water breaks 

 out and steeps the land. The Alder will grow most 

 luxuriantly with water constantly around it; but it thrives 

 best, not in a mere swamp, but in ground that is very wet; 

 and it by no means dislikes stagnant water. Hence an 

 Alder plantation is generally called an Alder bed, as an 

 Osier plantation is generally called an Osier bed. In such 

 situations, the Alder-shoot soon becomes a pole, and a very 

 straight pole too, though exceedingly brittle. It will be 

 cut down, of course, of the size that is required ; but, 

 generally, about ten years' growth produces poles of twenty 

 feet or more in length, each with a butt of from four to six 

 inches in diameter. These are cut off, as closely as possible 

 to the ground, at any time between October and the middle 

 of February ; because the sap is then down, and there is 

 no danger of what is called bleeding, where the cut is made. 

 The cut should be as smooth as possible ; and the hook, or 

 the axe, should not give a downward strnke, but an upward 



