The Willow. 



for any length of time in soil into which salt water can 

 come. 



584. The manner of planting osier beds, as they are 

 generally called, is this : — You take stout rods, which are 

 cut for the making of baskets, and cut off the butt-ends of 

 them. These butt-ends you plant in rows at four feet apart, 

 and at two feet or a foot and a half in the row. Do not 

 thrust these cuttings down into the ground, but make a 

 bole to receive them j for, by thrusting down the cuttings, 

 you run the risk of stripping up the bark from the butt of 

 the cutting ; and it is the bark, and not the wood, out of 

 which the roots are to grow. 



585. If the situation be such that there are occasional 

 overflowings from a river or brook, the cuttings which 

 ought to be about three feet long, and two feet of which 

 ought to be put into the ground ; these cuttings ought, in 

 such case, to be put in in a direction sloping towards the 

 river or brook, which would tend to prevent them from 

 retaining dead weeds, and grass, and leaves, which the 

 water would cause to swim upon the surface. If the situ- 

 ation be flat, and not liable to such inundations, it is better 

 to put the cuttings into the ground perpendicularly. 



586. Several shoots will come out of each cutting the 

 first year. The main shoot should be suffered to go up, 

 but all the rest should be cut off during the next winter. 

 By the winter after, there would be a stout stem with seve- 

 ral shoots upon it. The shoots should be all cut off" then ; 

 and after that, the stem itself should be cut down to within 

 about three or four inches from the ground 3 not quite so 

 low, perhaps, in situations that are very wet. After this, the 

 crop becomes annual and regular. By frequent cuttings off 



