CONSUMPTION OF BASKET WILLOWS IN THE 

 UNITED STATES FOR 1908. 



By C. D. Mull. 



The data was gathered almost entirely by correspondence with 

 203 willow-ware makers, and although no claim is made that the 

 figures are absolutely correct they are very close approximations. 

 They show the gradual increase or decrease in the production and 

 consumption as compared with former years. There are few 

 basket makers who have failed to reply to the inquiries, and there 

 are also a small number of minor establishments throughout the 

 country which were not reached, but the influence of their com- 

 bined consumption upon the total is relatively small. Making a 

 fair allowance for incomplete figures it is safe to state that the 

 amount of basket willow consumed during 1908 in the United 

 States was approximately 3,650,000 pounds, and that the total 

 value of the material ready for the basket makers' use was not 

 less than $225,000. 



Centers of the Industry, 



Basket willows are grown chiefly around cities having a large 

 percentage of German population to whom the advancement of 

 the industry in this country must be principally credited. The 

 chief centers in the Eastern States are New York, Philadelphia, 

 Pittsburg, Baltimore, Syracuse, Liverpool, Rochester, Buffalo, 

 Holland, Michigan, Milwaukee, Chicago, Burlington (Iowa), St. 

 Louis and Cincinnati. This industry has not been so well estab- 

 lished in the States west of the Mississippi River. 



Basket makers, as a rule, are Germans who learned the trade in 

 Germany, locating here in the large cities. They began business a 

 number of years ago when there was a splendid market for 

 custom-made baskets. A strong demand for rods soon induced 

 a number of farmers near these cities to grow basket willows. 

 It gradually spread, however, to regions farther away from the 

 manufacturing centers, and at present basket willows are grown 

 from Maine to Nebraska and from North Dakota to Tennessee 



