212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



eriy prepared, the cuttings can be pressed in with the hand. 

 They should not be set perpendicular, but on an angle of 

 about forty-five degrees, leaving two or three inches of the 

 end above the surface. The first and second year the land 

 should be kept well cultivated ; after that the crop will re- 

 quire but little attention by way of cultivation, nor will the 

 land require any manure after the first year. The seciDnd 

 year, some time during the winter, the willows should be cut 

 very near the ground. This first crop will be of little value 

 except for cuttings for new plantations. The third year a 

 good crop of osiers will be obtained. If for basket-work, they 

 should be cut early in March, tied in bundles of about fifty 

 pounds each, with the large ends all in one direction and as 

 even as possible. The bundles should be set in water three 

 or four inches deep, and kept there until the bark will 

 readily slip: the osiers should then be peeled, and rebundled 

 for market. If it is desired to grow for hoop-poles, the 

 willows should be cut but once in three years. To prevent 

 side-shoots, in the spring of the second year, when the leaves 

 are about one-half an inch in length, they should be rubbed 

 off by passing the thumb and finger down the twig, leaving 

 only a small tuft of leaves on the top : this, at the right 

 season, can be done very rapidly. At the end of three years 

 they will make excellent hoop-poles, — very straiglit, free from 

 knots, and almost as large at the top end as at the bottom. 

 An acre of warm land, after the first five years, will produce 

 every three years one hundred thousand hoop-poles, the 

 value of which will depend on location. An acre of warm 

 land that will produce forty bushels of Indian-corn will, 

 after the first three years, produce yearly from one to two 

 tons of peeled osiers. The only expense attending this crop 

 is cutting and peeling the osiers ; the land requiring no 

 manuring after the willows are set, and no cultivation after 

 the first three years. The expense of cutting is very trifling ; 

 but the peeling, if done b}^ hand, Avill cost about three cents 

 a pound. When the willows are grown to any extent, 

 machines of a trifling cost will undoubtedly be invented, 

 that will reduce the cost to one-half a cent a pound : already 

 machines are in use which very much reduce the labor. The 

 price which willows for basket-work have sold for at whole- 

 sale during the past five years has been from six to eight 



