318 [Assembly 



end of the sprouts being unripe, should be discarded, because 

 such wood will only produce weak plants, and will not make 

 such good roots the first season. The distances at which the 

 willows ought to be planted, should be at least two feet dis- 

 tant, (probably three feet would be better,) and one foot apart 

 in the rows. The former distance will not be too thick for at 

 least five or six years; but after that period, every alternate plant 

 , may be removed, which will leave the remaining stools two feet 

 apart each way. They should be carefully hoed and cleaned 

 erery year. Nothing conduces more to the raising a good crop 

 of sprouts after due preparation of the soil, than keeping it 

 clean ; besides, no good farmer would care to raise a crop of 

 weeds, which would exhaust the soil, at the expense of the wil- 

 lows. The stools should be carefully attended to annually, in 

 order to keep them clear of rotten stumps, and not to allow them 

 to be over-crowded at the bottom of the shoots. When these 

 become too numerous, they should be carefully thinned out, and 

 also cut down, leaving only one eye or two at the bottom of each, 

 until they be diminished to such a number as the stool is capa- 

 ble of supporting with vigor through the season. A basket- 

 maker finds more service from one shoot of six or eight feet in 

 length, than from four of three feet in length ; and one of the 

 first dimensions will not exhaust the stool or the land so much as 

 four of the others. The proper season for cleaning and thinning 

 the stocks is from the middle of March to the first of May, or 

 they may be cut in autumn, immediately after the fall of the 

 leaf. Immediately after cutting the sprouts, they are tied up in 

 bundles, and if they are not intended to be used with the bark 

 on, they are set on their butt ends in standing water, to the depth 

 of three or four inches. Here they can remain during winter 

 and spring, till the shoots begin to sprout, which generally hap- 

 pens in March, when they are ready to be peeled. 



The process of stripping or peeling is very simple, and may 

 be performed by infirm old men, or by a boy ten years old. All 

 children are fond of this work, and often make quite a frolic 

 where there are several employed on as many benches, each 

 striving who can peel the greatest number in a given time. 



