1885.] OSIER-GROWING IN FRANCE. 337 



OSIER-GROWING IN FRANCE. 



AS Burgermeister Krahe's paper ou the osier-beds at Geilen- 

 kirclien, at page 94 of our December number, has excited 

 considerable inquiry, we reproduce the main points elicited on the 

 same topic in a recent discussion before the Society of French 

 Agriculturists. 



M. Auvard had made trials of osier-growing in various soils 

 throughout France, with results in favour of those of a clayey and 

 alluvial character. Osiers grown on sandy soils were not so easily 

 accepted at basket-works. He preferred to trench the ground to 

 from 15 to 16 inches, as plantations so treated had yielded 300 fr. 

 per hectare — about £& per acre. He preferred that the saplings 

 about the thickness of one's thumb be planted about 32 inches 

 apart ; the operation being performed on planks, so as to preserve 

 the ground for subsequent use as a meadow. The returns are small 

 during the first year, better in the second, and continue increasing 

 till they reach a climax, after which they as certainly recur to a 

 minimum. Some years M. Auvard had drawn so much as 

 800 fr. net the hectare, whilst in others not more than 300 fr. were 

 obtained- — a proportion something like £12 to X4 per acre. 

 M. Auvard inundates his osiers by means of dams, the water being 

 allowed to ooze away through gutters. At the fall of the leaf, the 

 osier is cut as near the stem as possible ; the shoots, thus cut, are 

 assorted according to length and cleanliness, and plunged into large 

 casks. The largest bundles are more than two metres thick, and 

 over six feet in length. In May, when the sap rises, they are passed 

 through two iron rollers to detach the bark. Osiers thus blanched, 

 serve for vine props and other uses, and bring from 30 to 40 fr. 

 the 100 kilogrammes, or £12 to £16 per ton. At Dijon there are 

 special machines for osier decortication. 



In reply to the president, M. Grenet stated that in the Gatinais, 

 osier-cultivation for use in cooperage was extensively carried on. 

 On marshy or argilo-calcareous soils, osiers flourished there for 

 thirty years, returning fifty per cent, of the price of the land, which 

 was about 200 fr. per hectare, or nearly £4 per acre. In the 

 environs of Bruges the green osier was used in the bow-nets for 

 catching fish. M. Auvard stated that it was best to use a bill-hook 

 about 30 centimeters in length — 10^ inches — when cutting osiers 

 for withes ; it was best in such a case not to shave the osier close 

 to the ground. They were sold by the osier-growers as waste, 

 which formed in two hectares as much as 220 to 230 bundles; 

 at 1 fr. 25 c. each would nearly pay the cost of working, which 



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