24 
The East Anglian Timber Willow. 
Another fault, due apparently to soil — probably an 
absence of lime — is the appearance of small narrow pith 
marks, generally half an inch long and a sixteenth of an inch 
wide, lying between the annual rings. This is not so detri- 
mental. The greatest detriment is of course that of dead knots 
or a twisted grain of wood. Injury may also be done to the 
sap wood by the rubbing off of the bark during the felling of 
the trees. 
Most of the remaining trees in England are pollards. 
There are a great number on the banks of the East Anglian 
rivers, generally planted by River Commissioners and others 
for the purposes of broach wood for banks preservation and 
agricultural purposes. These trees are of no use for timber, 
since it appears that the constant cutting of the tops so weakens 
the trees that the heart wood is drained and exhausted and the 
.trunks become rotten and hollow at a very early age. 
It is evident that the repeated effort of the tree to replace 
its branches after each successive pollarding exhausts and 
destroys the heart wood ; but it might be that a tree pollarded, 
say twice, and then allowed to produce one stem, would grow 
a lighter and yet durable heart wood, and be thus more suit- 
able for cricket bats. 
The bark of the S. alba and S. viridis is dark grey in 
colour and “ close ” in appearance, and bat makers accept them 
as the “ right sort ” ; but they do not sufficiently consider that 
this appearance is often due to shelter and soil, and does not 
denote the variety with accuracy. The bark being close shows 
a healthy and rapidly growing tree, and thus straight grained, 
which is obviously most important. 
Buyers judge also by the shape of the branches, a healthy 
tree having them more upright, and the general appearance 
being that of a cone. This, however, does not denote the variety, 
but only that better timber exists in such trees than in 
stag-headed specimens that have got into a bad soil. 
Buying and Cutting Sets. 
As to planting for timber purposes Loudon quotes Gorrie 
(1825), who says that he found shoots from 6 ft. to 8 ft. 
long, and 2 in. in diameter succeed better than rooted plants ; 
and Scaling (1872) says : — “ It must be borne in mind that all 
willows grow more vigorously from cuttings than from rooted 
plants.” But Mr. Underwood, of Fornham St. Martin, Bury 
St. Edmunds, who gives considerable attention to the planting 
of willows, writes : — 
“ Using sets for planting I had hoped was onty a relic of the past and it 
involves a loss of time. Willow plants with nicely formed roots flourish at 
once where there has been no opportunity to prepare the soil well 
beforehand.” 
