The Willow. 



of the shoots or twigs, there comes a sort of head to the 

 stem, and, in some cases, this head gets to be a foot over; 

 and as shoots come from ahnost every part of it, the annual 

 produce is prodigious. The grass and weeds will, in such 

 situatious, rival the shoots in growth; and they ought to be 

 cut off about Midsummer, tied up in bundles, and carried 

 out of the osier-bed. The produce would probably pay for 

 the labour; and they do a great deal of harm to the shoots, 

 by keeping the lower parts of the large ones from the sun, 

 and by greatly diminishing the length and even the number 

 of the small ones. 



587. To have Wjllow Trees on the banks of rivers or 

 brooks, the usual way is to put in stakes, from six to twelve 

 feet long, and from three to five inches through at the 

 bottom. Such stake, or rather pole, is put in in the month 

 of February, or early in March, as soon as convenient 

 after it has been cut. The bottom of the stake or pole 

 should be cut off with a sloping cut, very smoothly, leaving 

 no ragged parts either in wood or bark ; for these die and 

 prevent the root from being sound. The point of the stake 

 or pole should be cut off in the same manner. The stake 

 or pole should be put into the ground by the means of an 

 iron bar, or some pointed thing sufficiently large to make 

 a hole suited to the bigness of the butt of the stake or pole. 

 Then the ground should be well fastened round the butt. 

 The stake or pole will strike root immediately, and all the 

 part which is above ground will send out shoots during the 

 summer, 



588. As you wish to have something of a clear trunk, you 

 must prune off the side-shoots to the height at which you 

 wish the head to begin. The head will then go on growing 

 and spreading. If the tree be of the Sallow kind, you will. 



