Selling of Willow Timber. 
31 
in the same proportion. The bat maker retorts that he knows 
nothing about “ elaborated” sap, but that he sees the crude sap 
producing side shoots in the early spring, and as he wants 
clean timber he objects to their presence and destroys them. 
It would seem therefore that if 20-ft. sets are used it might 
be well to rub the lower eight feet the first two years, and 
then after the tree has gained its initial strength to trim 
the higher eight feet. 
These remarks apply to sets which are put in about half 
the distance of their own height ; but in some places I have 
seen plantations where the sets have been considerably closer, 
and in this case possibly they need but little initial rubbing. 
The overhead canopy has been so quickly formed that no 
further side shoots have been produced. The system has its 
merits, and must produce a very clean trunk, but the trees must 
be thinned at an early stage. This can be done without loss by 
making use of the sets either by re-planting them as single 
sets or by cutting them up into short lengths and planting 
them. If this process is continued it may show a saving of 
expense in rubbing, but possibly an increased expense in 
subsequent re-planting ; it is clear that after a certain time, 
unless the trees are thinned, the size of their annual rings 
must become less, and consequently the growth of the trees 
will be slower. The forester should therefore watch his trees, 
and should he find that they do not increase reasonably in 
diameter, he must harden his heart and thin to such an extent 
that his remaining trees will make their proper growth ; for 
if once checked it is a question whether the full growth is 
afterwards maintained. To what extent this must be continued 
must be decided by the progress of the trees and by the market 
price of timber. The now almost complete absence of large 
willow timber shows us that the tree coming into the market 
will during the next two or three years be of a small descrip- 
tion, and the owner will have to decide whether he should 
take a higher price for his small trees or allow them to increase 
in growth to be sold at a lower price per foot in the future. 
It may be that the best form of plantation is a narrow belt, 
say forty feet wide, by which the advantages of both the over- 
head canopy in early life and the subsequent increase in girth 
may be obtained. 
Selling. 
We may assume that the tree first becomes saleable 
when it is 15 in. in diameter at 6 ft. from the ground. 
Taking the sapling as having some 15 ft. of clean growth, the 
average diameter would work out at 12 in. Under these 
circumstances bats could be cut from the entire length, and 
if the wood has been grown for the purpose there should 
