OF FOREST-TREES. 



253 



sheep; and being set too near, inclining to one another, they soon CHAP.XX. 

 destroy each other. v,-*»-v^«w' 



7. The worst Sallows may be planted so near, yet as to be instead of 

 stakes in a hedge, and then their tops will supply their dwarfishness ; and, 

 to prevent hedge-breakers, many do thus plant them, because they can- 

 not easily be pulled up after once they have struck root, 



8. If some be permitted to wear their tops five or six years, their palms 

 will be very ample, and yield the first and most plentiful relief to bees, 

 even before our Apricots blossom. The Hopping Sallows open and 

 yield their palms before other Sallov/s ; and when they are blown, (which 

 is about the exit of May, or sometimes June,) the palms (or ojhfj'.xapTroi, 

 Frugiperdse, as Homer terms them) are four inches long, and full of a 

 fine lanuginous cotton, Of this sort, there is a Salix near Darking, in 

 Surrey, in which the Julus bears a thick cottonous substance : A poor 

 body might in an hour's space gather a pound or two of it, which re- 

 sembling the finest silk, might doubtless be converted to some profitable 

 use by an ingenious housewife, if gathered in calm evenings, before the 

 wind, rain, and dew impair them : I am of opinion, if it were dried with 

 care, it might be fit for cushions, and pillows of chastity ; for such of old 

 was the reputation of the shade of those trees. 



9. Of these Hopping Sallows, after three years' rooting, each plant will 

 yield about a score of staves of full eight feet in length, and so following, 

 for use, as we noted above. Compute then how many fair pike-staves, 

 perches, and other useful materials, that will amount to in an acre, if 

 planted at five feet interval ; but a fat and moist soil requires indeed 

 more space than a lean or drier, namely, six or eight feet distance. 



10. You may plant settlings of the very first year's growth ; but the 

 second year they are better, and the third year better than the second, 

 and the fourth as good as the third, especially if they approach the water. 

 A bank at a foot distance from the water, is kinder for them thaq a bog, 

 or to be altogether immersed in the water. 



1 1. It is good to new-mould them about the roots every second or third 

 year ; but men seldom take the pains. It seems that Sallows are mor^ 



