_Of the Withy, Sallow, Ozier, and Willow._
1. _Salix_: Since Cato has attributed the third place to the _salictum_,
preferring it even next to the very ortyard; and (what one would wonder
at) before even the olive, meadow, or corn-field it self (for _salictum
tertio loco, nempe post vineam, &c._) and that we find it so easily
rais’d, of so great, and universal use, I have thought good to be the
more particular in my discourse upon it; especially, since so much of
that which I shall publish concerning them, is derived from the long
experience of a most learned and ingenious person, from whom I
acknowledge to have received many of these hints. Not to perplex the
reader with the various names, Greek, Gallic, Sabin, Amerine, Vitex, &c.
better distinguish’d by their growth and bark; and by Latin authors all
comprehended under that of _salices_; our English books reckon them
promiscuously thus; the common-white willow, the black, and the
hard-black, the rose of Cambridge, the black-withy, the round-long
sallow; the longest sallow, the crack-willow, the round-ear’d shining
willow, the lesser broad-leav’d willow, silver sallow, upright
broad-willow, repent broad-leav’d, the red-stone, the lesser willow, the
strait-dwarf, the long-leav’d yellow sallow, the creeper, the black-low
willow, the willow-bay, and the ozier. I begin with the withy.
2. The withy is a reasonable large tree, (for some have been found ten
foot about) is fit to be planted on high banks, and ditch-sides within
reach of water and the weeping sides of hills; because they extend their
roots deeper than either sallows or willows. For this reason you shall
plant them at ten, or twenty foot distance; and though they grow the
slowest of all the twiggie trees, yet do they recompence it with the
larger crop; the wood being tough, and the twigs fit to bind strongly;
the very peelings of the branches being useful to bind arbor-poling, and
in topiary-works, vine-yards, espalier-fruit, and the like: And we are
told of some that grow twisted into ropes of 120 paces, serving instead
of cables. There are two principal sorts of these withies, the hoary,
and the red-withy, (which is the Greek) toughest, and fittest to bind,
whilst the twigs are flexible and tender.
3. Sallows grow much faster, if they are planted within reach of water,
or in a very moorish ground, or flat plain; and where the soil is (by
reason of extraordinary moisture) unfit for arable, or meadow; for in
these cases, it is an extraordinary improvement: In a word, where birch
and alder will thrive. Before you plant them, it is found best to turn
the ground with a spade; especially, if you design them for a flat. We
have three sorts of sallows amongst us, (which is one more than the
ancients challeng’d, who name only the black and white, which was their
_nitellina_) the vulgar round leav’d, which proves best in dryer banks,
and the hopping-sallows, which require a moister soil, growing with
incredible celerity: And a third kind, of a different colour from the
other two, having the twigs reddish, the leaf not so long, and of a more
dusky green; more brittle whilst it is growing in twigs, and more tough
when arriv’d to a competent size: All of them useful for the thatcher.
4. Of these, the hopping-sallows are in greatest esteem, being of a
clearer terse grain, and requiring a more succulent soil; best planted a
foot deep, and a foot and half above ground (though some will allow but
a foot) for then every branch will prove excellent for future setlings.
After three years growth (being cropped the second and third) the first
years increase will be ’twixt eight and twelve foot long generally; the
third years growth, strong enough to make rakes and pike-staves; and the
fourth for Mr. Blithe’s trenching plow, and other like utensils of the
husbandman.
5. If ye plant them at full height (as some do at four years growth,
setting them five or six foot length, to avoid the biting of cattel)
they will be less useful for streight staves, and for setlings, and make
less speed in their growth; yet this also is a considerable improvement.
6. These would require to be planted at least five foot distance, (some
set them as much more) and in the _quincunx_ order: If they affect the
soil, the leaf will come large, half as broad as a man’s hand, and of a
more vivid green, always larger the first year, than afterwards: Some
plant them sloping, and cross-wise like a hedge, but this impedes their
wonderful growth; and (though Pliny seems to commend it, teaching us how
to excorticate some places of each set, for the sooner production of
shoots) it is but a deceitful fence, neither fit to keep out swine nor
sheep; and being set too near, inclining to one another, they soon
destroy each other.
7. The worst sallows may be planted so near yet, as to be instead of
stakes in a hedge, and then their tops will supply their dwarfishness;
and to prevent hedge-breakers, many do thus plant them; because they
cannot easily be pull’d up, after once they have struck root.
8. If some be permitted to wear their tops five or six years, their
palms will be very ample, and yield the first and most plentiful relief
to bees, even before our abricots blossom. The hopping-sallows open, and
yield their palms before other sallows, and when they are blown (which
is about the _exit_ of May, or sometimes June) the palms (or
ὠλεσίκαρποι _frugiperdæ_, as Homer terms them for their extream
levity) are four inches long, and full of a fine lanuginous cotton. Of
this sort, there is a _salix_ near Dorking in Surrey, in which the
_julus_ bears a thick cottonous substance. A poor body might in an
hour’s space, gather a pound or two of it, which resembling the finest
silk, might doubtless be converted to some profitable use, by an
ingenious house-wife, if gather’d in calm evenings, before the wind,
rain and dew impair them; I am of opinion, if it were dry’d with care,
it might be fit for cushions, and pillows of chastity, for such of old
was the reputation of the shade of those trees.
9. Of these hopping sallows, after three years rooting, each plant will
yield about a score of staves, of full eight foot in length, and so
following, for use, as we noted above: Compute then how many fair
pike-staves, perches, and other useful materials, that will amount to in
an acre, if planted at five foot interval: But a fat and moist soil,
requires indeed more space, than a lean or dryer; namely, six or eight
foot distance.
10. You may plant setlings of the very first years growth; but the
second year they are better, and the third year, better than the second;
and the fourth, as good as the third; especially, if they approach the
water. A bank at a foot distance from the water, is kinder for them
than a bog, or to be altogether immers’d in the water.
11. ’Tis good to new-mould them about the roots every second, or third
year; but men seldom take the pains. It seems that sallows are more
hardy, than even willows and oziers, of which Columella takes as much
care as of vines themselves. But ’tis cheaper to supply the vacuity of
such accidental decays, by a new plantation, than to be at the charge of
digging about them three times a year, as that author advises; seeing
some of them will decay, whatever care be used.
12. Sallows may also be propagated like vines, by courbing, and bowing
them in arches, and covering some of their parts with mould, &c. Also by
cuttings and layers, and some years by the seeds likewise.
13. For setlings, those are to be preferr’d which grow nearest to the
stock, and so (consequently) those worst, which most approach the top.
They should be planted in the first fair and pleasant weather in
February, before they begin to bud; we about London begin at the latter
end of December. They may be cut in Spring for fuel, but best in Autumn
for use; but in this work (as of poplar) leave a twig or two; which
being twisted archwise, will produce plentiful sprouts, and suddenly
furnish a head.
14. If in our copp’ces one in four were a sallow set, amongst the rest
of varieties, the profit would recompence the care; therefore where in
woods you grub up trees, thrust in trunchions of sallows, or some
aquatic kind. In a word, an acre or two furnish’d with this tree, would
prove of great benefit to the planter.
15. The swift growing sallow is not so tough and hardy for some uses as
the slower, which makes stocks for gard’ners spades; but the other are
proper for rakes, pikes, mops, &c. Sallow-coal is the soonest consum’d;
but of all others, the most easie and accommodate for painters
scribbets, to design their work, and first sketches on paper with, &c.
as being fine, and apt to slit into pencils.
16. To conclude, there is a way of graffing a sallow-trunchion; take it
of two foot and half long, as big as your wrist; graff at both ends a
fig, and mulberry-cyon of a foot long, and so, without claying, set the
stock so far into the ground, as the plant may be three or four inches
above the earth: This (some affirm) will thrive exceedingly the first
year, and in three, be fit to transplant. The season for this curiosity
is February. Of the sallow (as of the lime-tree) is made the
shooe-maker’s carving or cutting-board, as best to preserve the edge of
their knives, for its equal softness every way.
17. Oziers, or the aquatick and lesser _salix_, are of innumerable
kinds, commonly distinguish’d from sallows, as sallows are from withies;
being so much smaller than the sallow, and shorter liv’d, and requiring
more constant moisture, yet would be planted in rather a dryish ground,
than over moist and spewing, which we frequently cut trenches to avert.
It likewise yields more limber and flexible twigs for baskets, flaskets,
hampers, cages, lattices, cradles, the bodies of coaches and wagons, for
which ’tis of excellent use, light, durable, and neat, as it may be
wrought and cover’d: for chairs, hurdles, stays, bands, the stronger for
being contus’d and wreathed, &c. likewise for fish wairs, and to support
the banks of impetuous rivers: In fine, for all wicker and twiggy works:
_Viminibus salices_.............
18. But these sort of oziers would be cut in the new shoot: For if they
stand longer, they become more inflexible; cut them close to the head (a
foot, or so above earth) about the beginning of October; unless you will
attend till the cold be past, which is better; and yet we about London,
cut them in the most piercing seasons, and plant them also till
Candlemas, which those who do not observe, we judge ill husbands, as I
learn from a very experienc’d basket-maker; and in the decrease, for the
benefit of the workman, though not altogether for that of the stock, and
succeeding shoot: When they are cut, make them up into bundles, and give
them shelter; but such as are for white-work (as they call it) being
thus faggotted, and made up in bolts, as the term is, severing each sort
by themselves, should be set in water, the ends dipped; and indeed all
peel’d wares of the viminious kind, are not otherwise preserved from the
worm; but for black and unpeel’d, shelter’d under covert only, or in
some vault or cellar, to keep them fresh, sprinkling them now and then
in excessive hot weather: The peelings of the former, are for the use of
the gard’ner and cooper, or rather the splicings.
19. We have in England these three vulgar sorts; one of little worth,
being brittle, and very much resembling the fore-mentioned sallow, with
reddish twigs, and more greenish and rounder leaves: Another kind there
is, call’d perch, of limber and green twigs having a very slender leaf;
the third sort is totally like the second, only the twigs are not
altogether so green, but yellowish, and near the popinjay: This is the
very best for use, tough and hardy. But the most usual names by which
basket-makers call them about London, and which are all of different
species (therefore to be planted separately) are, the hard-gelster, the
horse-gelster, whyning or shrivell’d-gelster, the black-gelster, in
which Suffolk abounds. Then follow the golstones, the hard and the soft
golstone, (brittle, and worst of all the golstones) the sharp and
slender top’d yellow-golstone; the fine-golstone: Then is there the
yellow ozier, the green ozier, the snake, or speckled ozier,
swallow-tayl, and the Spaniard: To these we may add (amongst the number
of oziers, for they are both govern’d and us’d alike) the
Flanders-willow, which will arrive to be a large tree, as big as one’s
middle, the oftner cut, the better: With these our coopers, tie their
hoops to keep them bent. Lastly, the white-sallow; which being of a year
or two growth, is us’d for green-work; and if of the toughest sort, to
make quarter-can-hoops, of which our seamen provide great quantities,
&c.
20. These choicer sorts of oziers, which are ever the smallest, also the
golden-yellow, and white, which is preferr’d for propagation, and to
breed of, should be planted of slips of two or three years growth, a
foot deep, and half a yard length, in moorish grounds, or banks, or else
in furrows; so that (as some direct) the roots may frequently reach the
water; for _fluminibus salices_.......... though we commonly find it
rots them, and therefore never chuse to set them so deep as to scent it,
and at three or four foot distance.
21. The season for planting is January, and all February, though some
not till Mid-February, at two foot square; but cattle being excessively
liquorish of their leaves and tender buds, some talk of a graffing them
out of reach upon sallows, and by this, to advance their sprouting; but
as the work would consume time, so have I never seen it succeed.
22. Some do also plant oziers in their eights, like quick-sets, thick,
and (near the water) keep them not more than half a foot above ground;
but then they must be diligently cleansed from moss, slab, and ouze, and
frequently prun’d (especially the smaller spires) to form single shoots;
at least, that few, or none grow double; these they head every second
year about September, the autumnal cuttings being best for use: But
generally
23. You may cut withies, sallows and willows, at any mild and gentle
season, between leaf and leaf, even in Winter; but the most congruous
time both to plant and to cut them, is _crescente luna vere, circa
calendas Martias_; that is, about the new moon, and first open weather
of the early Spring.
24. It is in France, upon the Loire, where these eights (as we term
them) and plantations of oziers and withies are perfectly understood;
and both there, and in divers other countries beyond seas, they raise
them of seeds contain’d in their _juli_, or catkins, which they sow in
furrows, or shallow trenches, and it springs up like corn in the blade,
and comes to be so tender and delicate, that they frequently mow them
with a scyth: This we have attempted in England too, even in the place
where I live, but the obstinate and unmerciful weed did so confound
them, that it was impossible to keep them clean with any ordinary
industry, and so they were given over: It seems either weeds grow not so
fast in other countries, or that the people (which I rather think) are
more patient and laborious.
Note, that these _juli_, are not all of them seed-bearers, some are
sterile, and whatever you raise of them, will never come to bear; and
therefore by some they are called the male sort, as Mr. Ray (that
learned botanist) has observed. The ozier is of that emolument, that in
some places I have heard twenty pounds has been given for one acre; ten
is in this part an usual price; and doubtless, it is far preferable to
the best corn-land; not only for that it needs but once planting, but
because it yields a constant crop and revenue to the world’s end; and is
therefore in esteem of knowing persons, valu’d in purchase accordingly;
consider’d likewise how easily ’tis renew’d when a plant now and then
fails, by but pricking in a twig of the next at hand, when you visit to
cut them: We have in the parish near Greenwich, where I lately dwelt,
improv’d land from less than one pound, to near ten pounds the acre: And
when we shall reflect upon the infinite quantities of them we yearly
bring out of France and Flanders, to supply the extraordinary expence of
basket-work, &c. for the fruiterers, lime-burners, gardeners, coopers,
packers-up of all sorts of ware, and for general carriage, which seldom
last above a journey or two, I greatly admire gentlemen do no more think
of employing their moist grounds (especially, where tides near fresh
rivers are reciprocal) in planting and propagating oziers. To omit
nothing of the culture of this useful ozier, Pliny would have the place
to be prepared by trenching it a foot and half deep, and in that, to fix
the sets, or cuttings of the same length at six foot interval. These (if
the sets be large) will come immediately to be trees; which after the
first three years, are to be abated within two foot of the ground. Then
in April he advises to dig about them: Some raise them abundantly, by
laying poles of them in a boggy earth only: Of these they formerly made
vine-props, _juga_, as Pliny calls them, for archwise bending and
yoaking, as it were, the branches to one another; and one acre hath been
known to yield props sufficient to serve a vine-yard of 25 acres.
25. John Tradescant brought a small ozier from S. Omers in Flanders,
which makes incomparable net-works, not much inferior to the Indian
twig, or bent-works which we have seen; but if we had them in greater
abundance, we should haply want the artificers who could employ them,
and the dexterity to vernish so neatly.
26. Our common _salix_, or willow, is of two kinds, the white and the
black: The white is also of two sorts, the one of a yellowish, the other
of a browner bark: The black willow is planted of stakes, of three years
growth, taken from the head of an old tree, before it begins to sprout:
Set them of six foot high, and ten distant; as directed for the poplar.
Those woody sorts of willow, delight in meads and ditch-sides, rather
dry, than over-wet (for they love not to wet their feet, and last the
longer) yet the black sort, and the reddish, do sometimes well in more
boggy grounds, and would be planted of stakes as big as one’s leg, cut
as the other, at the length of five or six foot or more into the earth;
the hole made with an oaken-stake and beetle, or with an iron crow (some
use a long auger) so as not to be forced in with too great violence: But
first, the trunchions should be a little stop’d at both extreams, and
the biggest planted downwards: To this, if they are soaked in water two
or three days (after they have been siz’d for length, and the twigs cut
off ere you plant them) it will be the better. Let this be done in
February, the mould as well clos’d to them as possible, and treated as
was taught in the poplar. If you plant for a kind of wood, or copp’ce
(for such I have seen) set them at six foot distance, or nearer, in the
_quincunx_, and be careful to take away all suckers from them at three
years end: You may abate the head half a foot from the trunk, _viz._
three or four of the lustiest shoots, and the rest cut close, and bare
them yearly, that the three, four or more you left, may enjoy all the
sap, and so those which were spared, will be gallant pearches within two
years. Arms of four years growth, will yield substantial sets, to be
planted at eight or ten foot distance; and for the first three years
well defended from the cattle, who infinitely delight in their leaves,
green, or wither’d. Thus, a willow may continue twenty, or five and
twenty years, with good profit to the industrious planter, being headed
every four or five years; some have been known to shoot no less than
twelve foot in one year, after which, the old, rotten dotards may be
fell’d, and easily supply’d. But if you have ground fit for whole
copp’ces of this wood, cast it into double dikes, making every foss near
three foot wide, two and half in depth; then leaving four foot at least
of ground for the earth (because in such plantations the moisture should
be below the roots, that they may rather see, than feel the water) and
two tables of sets on each side, plant the ridges of these banks with
but one single table, longer and bigger than the collateral, _viz._
three, four, five or six foot high, and distant from each other, about
two yards. These banks being carefully kept weeded for the first two
years, till the plants have vanquish’d the grass, and not cut till the
third; you may then lop them traverse, and not obliquely, at one foot
from the ground, or somewhat more, and they will head to admiration; but
such which are cut at three foot height, are most durable, as least soft
and aquatick: They may also be graffed ’twixt the bark, or budded; and
then they become so beautiful, as to be fit for some kind of delightful
walks; and this I wish were practis’d among such as are seated in low
and marshy places, not so friendly to other trees. Every acre at eleven
or twelve years growth, may yield you near a hundred load of wood: Cut
them in the Spring for dressing, but in the Fall for timber and fuel: I
have been inform’d, that a gentleman in Essex, has lopp’d no less than
2000 yearly, all of his own planting. It is far the sweetest of all our
English fuel, (ash not excepted) provided it be sound and dry, and
emitting little smoak, is the fittest for ladies chambers; and all those
woods and twigs would be cut either to plant, work with, or burn in the
dryest time of the day.
To confirm what we have advanc’d in relation to the profit which may be
made by this husbandry, see what comes to me from a worthy person whom
we shall have occasion to mention, with great respect, in the next
chapter, when we speak of quicksets.
The considerable improvement which may be made in common fields, as well
as inclosed grounds, he demonstrates by a little spot of meadow, of
about a rod and half; part of which being planted about 50 years since
with willows (in a clump not exceeding four pole in length, on one side
about 12) several of them at the first and second lopping, being left
with a strait top, run up like elms, to 30 or 40 foot in height; which
some years since yielded boards of 14 or 15 inches broad as good for
flooring, and other purposes within doors, as deals, last as long, work
finer, white and beautiful: ’tis indeed a good while since they were
planted, but it seems the crop answer’d this patience, when he cut up as
many of them (the year 1700) as were well worth 10l. And since that
another tree, for which a joyner offer’d him as much for those were
left, which was more by half than the whole ground it self was worth; so
as having made 20l. of the spot, he still possesses it without much
damage to the grass. The method of planting was first by making holes
with an iron crow, and widening them with a stake of wood, fit to
receive a lusty plant, and sometimes boaring the ground with an auger;
but neither of these succeeding, (by reason the earth could not be
ramm’d so close to the sides and bottom of the sets, as was requisite to
keep them steady, and seclude the air, which would corrupt and kill the
roots) he caus’d holes, or little pits of a foot square and depth to be
dug, and then making a hole with the crow in the bottom of the pits, to
receive the set, and breaking the turf which came out of it, ramm’d it
in with the mould close to the sets (as they would do to fix a
gate-post) with great care not to gall the bark of it. He had divers
times before this miscarry’d, when he us’d formerly to set them in plain
ground, without breaking the surface, and laying it close to the sets;
and therefore, if the soil be moist, he digs a trench by the side of the
row, and applies the mould which comes out of it about the sets; so that
the edge of the bank raised by it, may be somewhat higher than the earth
next the set, for the better descent of the rain, and advantage of
watering the sets in dry weather; preventing likewise their rooting in
the bank, which they would do if the ground next the plant or set were
made high, and sloped; and being left unfenc’d, cattel would tread down
the bank, and lay the roots bare: The ground should therefore not be
raised above 2 or 3 inches towards the body of the set. Now if the
ground be dry, and want moisture, he chuses to bank them round, (as I
have described it in my _Pomona_, cap. VII.) the fosses environing the
mound and hillock, being reserves for the rain, cools and refreshes the
sets.
He farther instances, that willows of about 20 years growth, have been
worth 30s. and another sold for 3l. which was well worth 5l. and
affirms, that the willows planted in beds, between double ditches, in
boggy ground, may be fit to be cut every five years, and pay as well as
the best meadow-pasture, which is of extraordinary improvement.
27. There is a sort of willow of a slender and long leaf, resembling the
smaller ozier; but rising to a tree as big as the sallow, full of knots,
and of a very brittle spray, only here rehears’d to acknowledge the
variety.
28. There is likewise the garden-willow, which produces a sweet and
beautiful flower, fit to be admitted into our hortulan ornaments, and
may be set for partitions of squares; but they have no affinity with
other. There is also in Shropshire another very odoriferous kind,
extreamly fit to be planted by pleasant rivulets, both for ornament and
profit: It is propagated by cuttings or layers, and will grow in any dry
bottom, so it be sheltred from the south, affording a wonderful and
early relief to the industrious bee: Vitruvius commends the _vitex_ of
the Latines (impertinently called _agnus castus_, the one being but the
interpretation of the other) as fit for building; I suppose they had a
sort of better stature than the shrub growing among the curious with us,
and which is celebrated for its chast effects, and for which the
Ancients employ’d it in the rites of Ceres: I rather think it more
convenient for the sculptor (which he likewise mentions) provided we may
(with safety) restore the text, as Perrault has attempted, by
substituting _lævitatem_, for the author’s _regiditatem_ stubborn
materials being not so fit for that curious art.
29. What most of the former enumerated kinds differ from the sallows, is
indeed not much considerable, they being generally useful for the same
purposes; as boxes, such as apothecaries and goldsmiths use; for
cart-saddle-trees, yea gun-stocks, and half-pikes, harrows, shooe-makers
lasts, heels, clogs for pattens, forks, rakes, especially the tooths,
which should be wedged with oak; but let them not be cut for this when
the sap is stirring, because they will shrink; pearches, rafters for
hovels, portable and light laders, hop-poles, ricing of kidney-beans,
and for supporters to vines, when our English vineyards come more in
request: Also for hurdles, sieves, lattices; for the turner, kyele-pins,
great town-tops; for platters, little casks and vessels; especially to
preserve verjuices in, the best of any: Pales are also made of cleft
willow, dorsers, fruitbaskets, canns, hives for bees, trenchers, trays,
and for polishing and whetting table-knives, the butler will find it
above any wood or whet-stone; also for coals, bavin, and excellent
firing, not forgetting the fresh boughs, which of all the trees in
nature, yield the most chast and coolest shade in the hottest season of
the day; and this umbrage so wholsome, that physicians prescribe it to
feaverish persons, permitting them to be plac’d even about their beds,
as a safe and comfortable _refrigerium_. The wood being preserved dry,
will dure a very long time; but that which is found wholly putrified,
and reduc’d to a loamy earth in the hollow trunks of superannuated
trees, is, of all other, the fittest to be mingled with fine mould, for
the raising our choicest flowers, such as anemonies, ranunculus’s,
auriculas, and the like.
What would we more? low broom, and sallows wild,
Or feed the flock, or shepherds shade, or field
Hedges about, or do us honey yield.{175:1}
30. Now by all these plantations of the aquatick trees, it is evident,
the lords of moorish commons, and unprofitable wasts, may learn some
improvement, and the neighbour bees be gratified; and many tools of
husbandry become much cheaper. I conclude with the learned Stephanus’s
note upon these kind of trees, after he has enumerated the universal
benefit of the _salictum_: _nullius enim tutior reditus, minorisve
impendii, aut tempestatis securior_.
FOOTNOTES:
{175:1}
Quid majora sequor? Salices, humilesque genistæ,
Aut illæ pecori frondem, aut pastoribus umbram
Sufficiunt, sepemque satis & pabula melli.
_Georg. 2._