Cultivation
Although there is no record of its introduction to Britain, the tree probably arrived with the Romans, a hypothesis supported by the discovery of pollen in an excavated Roman vineyard. It is possible the tree was used also as a source of leaf hay. The introduction of the tree to Spain from Italy is recorded by the Roman agronomist Columella. It has also been identified as the elm grown in the vineyards of the Valais, or Wallis, canton of Switzerland.
More than a thousand years after the departure of the Romans from Britain, the English Elm found far greater popularity, as the preferred tree for planting in the new Hawthorn hedgerows appearing as a consequence of the Enclosure movement, which lasted from 1550 to 1850. In parts of the Severn Valley, the tree occurred at densities of over 1000 per square kilometre, so prolific as to have been known as the 'Worcester Weed'
Read more about this topic: Ulmus Procera
Famous quotes containing the word cultivation:
“If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“We are on a mission: we are called to the cultivation of the earth.”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)
“... in the education of women, the cultivation of the understanding is always subordinate to the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishment ...”
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)