slip. Fence the ground as far as any old poplar-roots extend, they will
furnish you with suckers innumerable, to be slipp'd from their mothers,
and transplanted the very first year: But if you cut down an old tree,
you shall need no other nursery. When they are young, their leaves are
somewhat broader and rounder (as most other trees are) than when they
grow aged. In moist and boggy places they will flourish wonderfully, so
the ground be not spewing; but especially near the margins and banks of
rivers,

_Populus in fluviis_..........

and in low, sweet, and fertile ground; yea, and in the dryer likewise.
Also trunchions of seven or eight foot long, thrust two foot into the
earth, (a hole being made with a sharp hard stake, fill'd with water,
and then with fine earth pressed in, and close about them) when once
rooted, may be cut at six inches above ground; and thus placed at a yard
distant, they will immediately furnish a kind of copp'ce. But in case
you plant them of rooted trees, or smaller sets, fix them not so deep;
for though we bury the trunchions thus profound, yet is the root which
they strike, commonly but shallow. They will make prodigious shoots in
15, or 16 years; but then the heads must by no means be diminish'd, but
the lower branches may, yet not too far up; the foot would also be
cleansed every second year. This for the white. The black poplar is
frequently pollar'd when as big as one's arm, eight or nine foot from
the ground, as they trim them in Italy, for their vines to serpent and
twist on, and those they poll, or head every second year, sparing the
middle, streight, and thrivingest shoot, and at the third year cut him
also. There be yet that condemn the pruning of this poplar, as hindring
their growth.

2. The shade of this tree is esteemed very wholsome in Summer, but they
do not become walks, or avenues by reason of their suckers, and that
they foul the ground at fall of the leaf; but they would be planted in
barren woods, and to flank places at distance, for their increase, and
the glittering brightness of their foliage: The leaves are good for
cattel, which must be stripp'd from the cut boughs before they are
faggoted. This to be done in the decrease of October, and reserv'd in
bundles for winter-fodder. The wood of white poplar is sought of the
sculptor, and they saw both sorts into boards, which, where they lie
dry, continue a long time. Of this material they also made shields of
defence