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118 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
occurrence of poisoning. Also the half-dried leaves would be, cateris paribus,
more potent than the fresh.
" Further and extended chemical researches, in conjunction with physiological
experiments, are necessary to clear up the matter.
" The principle having a specific uterine action is possibly not the same as
that which causes death."
This poison, if taken in sufficient quantity, is deadly to man, horses, asses,
sheep, cattle, pigs, pheasants, and possibly other animals, but under ordinary
circumstances small quantities of the leaves may be and are habitually eaten by
live-stock without apparent injury, whilst it seems proved that the wood of the yew
may be used for water vessels and for baths, as in Japan, without any deleterious
effects.
Sargent, Silva of. North America, vol. x., 63, says " no cases of poisoning
by Taxus in North America appear to be recorded " ; and Brandis, Forest Flora
of British India, p. 541, says that "in India domestic animals are said to browse
upon T. baccata without experiencing any bad effects."
With regard to the danger of allowing this tree to grow in hedges and
fields where stock are pastured, there seems to be abundant evidence, which is
well summarised by Mr. E. P. Squarey, and which my own experience entirely
confirms, that though animals which have been bred and fed in places where
they have access to yew are more or less immune, probably because they never
eat it in sufficient quantity to do harm, yet that animals freshly turned into such
places when hungry, or in winter and spring when there is little grass, are liable
to die from eating it, and that fatal effects most commonly ensue when loppings
or partially withered branches and leaves are eaten.
It has been held in more than one case that landowners, and others responsible
for keeping up fences, who allow yew trees to remain insufficiently fenced, are
liable to an action for damages if another person's cattle from adjoining land eat
the branches and die.
With regard to the danger of yew trees in game coverts we have little exact
knowledge, but in certain cases there seems to be evidence of its being poisonous
to pheasants, and the following passage, which was communicated by Sir William
ffolkes, Bart., of Hillington Hall, Norfolk, to the editor of the Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society, 1 892, p. 698, is worth quoting in full.
" Some years ago, when shooting through the coverts here the second time,
we found about fifteen carcasses of pheasants under some yew trees. These
could not have been overlooked the first time in picking up, as there was no
stand anywhere near this place where so many pheasants could have been shot.
My keeper informs me that it is after the pheasants have been disturbed by
shooting that they take to perching in the yew trees. This may or may not be
so, but at any rate it appears that, when they take to perching in these trees,
they are apt to eat a few of the leaves. We now always drive them off the yew
trees when they go to perch at night. I enclose some of the yew which
poisoned the pheasants, and would like to add that never before this year have
Taxus 119
we picked up a dead pheasant anywhere near these yew trees till the coverts had
been shot."
We have no record of any case of deer being poisoned by yew, though no
doubt in a heavy snow they might be tempted to eat it, and Mr. Squarey states
that in the " Great and Little Yews" of which I write later, hares and rabbits,
which are very numerous, have never been found dead from poisoning.
I may add that I have frequently seen yews of a few inches in girth barked
and killed by rabbits where they are very numerous and hungry, but it is one of
the last trees to be attacked.
CULTIVATION
The yew is best raised from seed, except in the case of varieties which are
propagated by cuttings, which are taken off in April or August and put into
sandy soil in a shady border, or, better, under a handlight, as they will then root
more quickly.
Seed, if sown when ripe, will sometimes come up in the following spring,
but usually lies over the first year, and is therefore treated like haws. The
seedlings grow very slowly at first, and require several years of nursery cultivation
before they are large enough to plant out.
They are easy to transplant in early autumn or in spring, and may be safely
moved at almost any time of the year even when of large size, if care is taken
to prepare the roots and keep them watered until new ones are formed.
The yew in Buckland Churchyard, about a mile from Dover, may be mentioned
as an instance of the great age at which this tree may be transplanted with safety, if
proper care and appliances are used. This tree was a very old and large one,
divided into two stems, one of which, almost horizontal, was 10 feet 10 inches,
and the entire trunk no less than 22 feet in girth. It was removed by the late
Mr. W. Barren on March i, 1880, to a position 60 yards off, where Mr. John
Barron of Elvaston Nurseries tells me it is now in a vigorous state of health. An
account of this tree is given by Lowe; and the manner in which it was transplanted,
with pictures of its appearance before and after removal, is described fully in Card.
Chron. 1 880, p. 556-7.
By sowing seeds there is some chance of obtaining variegated forms, which
are among the most ornamental shrubs we have.
The Hon. Vicary Gibbs has found that at Aldenham the use of nitrate of
soda increases in a marked degree the growth of young yew trees. Some yews
planted by him in 1897 and treated with liberal quantities of this manure had attained
in 1905 an average height of 12 feet, with a girth of stem of 16 inches at a foot
above the base.
SOIL AND SITUATION
Though the yew grows naturally most commonly on limestone formations in
England, it will grow on almost any soil except perhaps pure peat and wet clay,