THE BASKET-WILLOW. 287 



son's sand had been dug. The top of the land had been 

 taken off entirely. Not knowing the character of the shrub 

 when I first had it (I got it in the autumn), I packed it away 

 in sand. In the spring I thought I took all the slips out ; 

 but I left a few cuttings, which sprouted, and for more than 

 twenty years they have grown in that sandy land where 

 the top had been taken off. It is true it is in a depression, 

 where the leaves have since settled down ; but they came 

 up and grew in that clear sand, and made a good growth, as 

 you see. 



Now, do not understand me as recommending people to 

 set their willows on clear sand. I do not desire to be so 

 understood. If you want to be successful with the willow, 

 get the right variety, and go on to a good, warm soil, where 

 Indian corn will grow well. If you have a piece of land 

 that will produce sixty or seventy bushels of corn to the 

 acre, there you may be pretty sure of getting a good crop of 

 the basket-willow. There is where it delights to flourish, 

 and it will grow much larger and taller than this. But this 

 is a pretty good length, and one which will sell well. 



The amount which you can get on an acre of good land 

 •well manured, I should say, is about nine tons to the acre of 

 the green crop. That produces about three tons of dried 

 willow, which is worth from six to eight cents per pound. 

 It costs something like three cents a pound to strip it by 

 hand; but, if we get into the cultivation of it largely, we 

 Yankees will have ingenuity enough to invent machines 

 which will undoubtedly very much decrease the cost of strip- 

 ping, and perhaps bring it down to less than a cent a pound. 

 But even at a cost of three cents a pound, and supposing 

 that you get not more than a ton to the acre, you will all 

 readily see that it is a very profitable crop, simply because, 

 when you have once manured your land and got a good 

 crop started, the leaves which settle among these long up' 

 right shoots do not blow away, but settle down upon the 

 ground, and there they rot; and as you all well know by 

 observation, where there is a forest, if the fallen leaves are 

 allowed to stay there, the land grows richer : therefore there 

 is no necessity, year after year, of enriching your land. 



Mr. Whitakee. Will it produce three tons the first yeai 

 after planting? 



