Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL III 
NO. 13 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
“ HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. JULY 13, 1917 
The high price obtained in England before the war for willow wood 
for cricket bats resulted in investigations of the different trees from 
which wood suitable for this purpose could be obtained. The most 
valuable tree for this purpose is described by English timber dealers 
as “Close Bark” Willow, and is either a form of Salix alba calva, 
or var. coerulea, or as some authors believe a species, S. coerulea. 
This “Close Bark” tree from which the best timber for the purpose is 
obtained is found in England only in a few of the southeastern counties 
and is a seed-bearing, or pistillate tree, of strict pyramidal habit, some- 
times when planted in good soil one hundred feet high, and as it grows 
rapidly the distance between the lateral branchlets makes the crown of 
foliage appear thin. That this tree when planted in soil which suits it 
grows rapidly is shown in the statement published by Elwes in “The 
Trees of Great Britain and Ireland,” that a tree which was planted at 
Boreham in Essex in 1835 and felled in 1888 when it was one hundred 
and one feet tall had a trunk five feet nine inches in diameter. From 
the wood of this tree eleven hundred and seventy-nine cricket bats 
were made. Elwes reports the purchase of a piece of land for $250 on 
which in sixteen years Willows of this variety were grown which sold 
for $10,000, and quotes the statement that a good set (a straight piece 
of a branch about the thickness of a broom-handle to set in the ground 
like a cutting) costing from twenty-five to thirty cents, when planted 
in suitable soil and has grown well is worth from $25 to $40 in fifteen 
years. 
There are two other Willows which produce wood used for this pur- 
pose, although it is considered less valuable. The better of these is 
one of the hybrids between Salix alba and S. fragilis for which the 
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