Willows and their Cultivation. 
241 
All the varieties of the soft- wooded kinds will grow in a 
much damper soil than the harder- wooded kinds ; but, in any 
case, one of the first things to be done is to secure proper drain- 
age. All stagnant surface water should be drained off, and the 
bed should be well prepared by trenching the ground to the 
depth of twelve or fourteen inches at least, and so clearing it of 
surface weeds. If the land is poor it should be well manured, 
and if the land is strong and cold lime may be used, but with 
care, as if lime is applied to light land it is liable to cause the 
crop to canker. A deep alluvial soil is the most suitable, as it 
affords a rich and moist bed for the cuttings, but any heavy soil 
inclined to moistness may be planted. Hot land should be 
avoided. 
Difference of opinion exists as to drains. It used to be the 
practice to plant willow holts in beds with broad open drains 
between them. This plan is still followed, but it has also be- 
come a practice to lay down the holt in a flat area with covered 
drains, using drain pipes in the usual way ; and it is argued that 
this system admits of the land being cleared much more econo- 
mically than where open drains have existed, though there is ox 
course the danger that the drains may sooner or later be choked 
with the roots of the willows. 
When the ground has been prepared carefully, the next 
matter is the planting ; for this cuttings are required. Much 
difference of opinion exists amongst planters under this head 
also. It is pretty generally admitted that the better plan to 
follow is to obtain cuttings from two-year-old shoots. They may 
be taken, however, from one-year-old shoots, and it has been 
said that cuttings from such shoots strike more easily, and in 
many instances carry more rods than two-year-old cuttings, but 
they are the more quickly exhausted, and a willow bed planted 
with cuttings from two-year-old shoots will be likely to last the 
longer. The cuttings need not exceed twelve to fourteen inches 
each in length. The rod should be cut into these lengths with a 
sharp knife in a slanting direction, the cut being a clean one made 
with a sharp decided stroke. Taking the rod in the hand, the 
bottom of the cutting (the thicker end, leaving the buds directed 
upwards, of course) should be properly sharpened, the length 
for the first “ set,” or “ cutting,” properly gauged, and the cutting 
then made. The point at which the cutting was made will then 
be the bottom of the next — this will now be sharpened, the 
cutting measured, and a clean cut made as before ; and so on until 
the rod shows that the point has been reached where the wood 
is not sufficiently matured for the purpose of making good 
puttings from the fipened wood, 4? a rifle, one-year-old shoofg 
