ow 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