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them about a foot and a half into the ground. These will readily take root, and if the soil be moist 
in which they are planted, they will arrive to a considerable bulk in a few years. 
The Black Poplar is not so apt to take root from large truncheons, therefore it is the better 
method to plant cuttings about a foot and a half in length, thrusting them a foot deep into the 
ground; these will take root very freely, and may be afterward transplanted where they are to 
remain. This sort will grow upon almost any soil, but will thrive best in moist places. 
I have planted cuttings of this tree, which in four years have been bigger in the trunk than a 
man's thigh, and near twenty feet in height, and this upon a very indifferent soil; but in a very moist 
soil, it is common for these trees to shoot eight or ten feet in a season; so that where a person hath 
a mind to make a shelter in a few years, there is scarce any tree so proper for that purpose as this; 
but they should not be planted too near the pleasure-garden, because the katkins and down which 
fall from these trees, will make a prodigious litter in the spring. 
The white sorts, as also the Aspen-tree, likewise cause a great litter in the spring, when their 
katkins and down fall off; and their roots being very apt to produce a large quantity of suckers, 
they are unfit to be planted near a house or garden; but when they are interspersed with other trees 
in large plantations, they afford an agreeable variety, their leaves being white on their under sides, 
which, when$blown with the wand, are turned to sight. 
A considerable advantage may be made by planting these trees upon moist boggy soils, where 
few other trees will thrive. Many such places there are in England, which do not at present bring 
in much money to their owners; whereas, if they were planted with these trees, they would, in a very 
few years, over-purchase the ground, clear of all expence; but there are many persons, who think 
nothing except Corn worth cultivating in England; or if they plant timber, it must be Oak, Ash, or 
Elm; and if their land be not proper for either of these, it is deemed worth little; whereas if the 
nature of the soil was examined, and proper sorts of plants adapted to it, there might be very great 
advantage made of several large tracts of land, which at this time lie neglected. 
Spring is the best season for planting the cuttings; though they will grow if planted in any of 
the winter months. They should all be vigorous shoots of the last year, or at least not older than 
two years; a foot and half in length. Plant them ten inches or a foot in the ground, in rows two 
feet and a half or a yard asunder, and a foot or eighteen inches from each other. Look over the 
plants in summer, to nip off all side shoots. In two years they may be planted out, if they are for 
small woods or spinneys, in boggy or watery grounds. If they are for standards, they may remain 
in the nursery another year; and when planted out, they will be worth in twenty or thirty years as 
many shillings each. 
The Tacamahacca sends up a great number of suckers from the roots, by which it multiplies in 
plenty, and every cutting which is planted will take root; so that when a plant is once obtained, 
there may soon be plenty of the plants raised. 
The cuttings should be planted the middle of February, in rich mellow earth, shaded from the 
mid-day sun, and watered in dry weather. The succeeding February remove them; smooth the 
extremities of their roots, cut off the strong side branches, and plant them in rows three feet distant, 
and eighteen inches asunder in the row: here let them continue two or three years, when they may 
be transplanted to the places where they are intended to remain. 
It will grow on almost any soil; and when there are void spaces in plantations, occasioned by 
the death of other trees, this will sooner and better supply their places than most others.* 
* Boutcher. 
