Buying and Cutting Sets. 
25 
It seems, therefore, desirable, where there is no ground 
game, to put in young nursery plants in trenched and open 
ground, taking care that they are not injured in the first two 
years by wild hops, bind weed (convolvulus), or other climbing 
weeds, which would quickly bend them doivn and smother 
them. 
This plan must, however, for many reasons be by far the most 
expensive, and no doubt at present the 3 in. by 20 ft. sets 
is the favourite method. The sets can be easily obtained, owing 
to the number of pollards and the small value of the top for 
firewood or other purposes. The better plan is to buy at so 
much per tree, the purchaser to cut in a workmanlike manner, 
cutting upwards so as not to split the stump, and to leave the 
“ brash ” on the ground to the seller for “ kindling,” the seller 
to deliver the sets at a place named by the purchaser. 
The sets should be selected and purchased during the 
summer, since it is at this time that their variety and quality 
can be determined, and should be of about four or more years’ 
growth. They -should be trimmed closely for four-fifths of 
their length, and tied up in half scores and placed in a ditch 
or pond. Sets may be kept in water for a month or more ; 
but it is not desirable to allow the rootlets to become more 
than half an inch in length. The better time to cut them is 
in the early spring, which allows of the above process. If the 
set is cut in the winter it lacks moisture and vitality, and 
the ground is frequently hard and cold ; but the sets when 
soaking imbibe a large quantity of water, which supplies the 
sap for the earlier shoots. 
Sets cut from the tops of young trees are of good quality, 
but from the nature of their growth, they are not so apt to be 
straight as those from pollards, and this is a very important 
requirement. It is, however, most undesirable to cut sets from 
the tops of old trees ; they are seldom straight and require 
much trimming. They are also of a very brittle and sapless 
nature, and the chance of their growing well is comparatively 
small. 
If it was advisable to obtain plants from a large tree that 
seemed of a very desirable quality, this would be best secured 
by small cuttings of, say, twelve inches long, which should 
be planted in carefully selected soil. The new shoots would 
then start from the ground, and, after pruning the smaller 
ones, the leading shoots would form a plant of entirely new 
wood. 
A writer in The Gentleman's Magazine , in 1758, suggested 
the planting of sets a year old and the size of a man’s thumb, 
in rich marshy land, at the distance of two feet every way. 
When they have stood seven years, he added, they should be 
