Consumption of Basket IVillozvs. 275 



makers buy the stock they desire, and during the winter the rods 

 are cut, weighed and shipped. The price of green rods varies 

 from $16 to $28 per ton. Large buyers usually make a contract 

 with growers to sell them all the willows they can grow during a 

 period of three years. This arrangement is generally made to 

 insure a steady supply of stock. 



The bulk of basket willows grown in western New York are 

 sold to basket makers in Syracuse and Liverpool, where they are 

 steamed and peeled for making clothes baskets and hampers. 

 The cost of steaming the green rods is about $2 per ton, while the 

 cost of peeling varies somewhat with the kind of labor employed. 

 At present practically all the steamed willows consumed near 

 Syracuse are peeled under contract in the State Penal Institution, 

 and the cost per pound is somewhat lower than if peeled by labor- 

 ers who receive from $1 to $1.50 per day. The cost of peeUng 

 the rods by hand after they are steamed varies from 2 to 3^ cents 

 per pound. Steam-peeled rods when thoroughly dried sell for 

 about 5 cents per pound but they are not used extensively outside 

 of the State of New York. 



The price of the best grade of sap-peeled willows has been 

 steadily rising during the last three or four years. The best grades 

 sell for 8 and 9 cents per pound, and a few basket makers have 

 paid as high as 16 cents per pound for selected stock. Sap-peeled 

 willows that are straight and cylindrical will bring from 7 to 8 

 cents per pound with high grade willow-ware makers in the large 

 cities. Good grades of imported willows sell for still more, and 

 there is no reason why American growers should not realize as 

 much or more than importers do for their stock. This is only pos- 

 sible, however, by employing the intensive methods of growing 

 them and by careful sorting and bundling the rods. 



Consumption of Home-Grown Basket Willow in 1908. 



Table 2 gives the consumption of both steam and sap-peeled 

 basket willow rods in 1908 by States. It shows that approxi- 

 mately 66 per cent, of all the rods consumed were steam-peeled, of 

 which fully 90 per cent, were consumed in New York State. 

 Pennsylvania leads in the use of sap-peeled rods, which is closely 

 followed by New York, Maryland and Massachusetts. The above 

 figures are not the real amounts of production for each State. 



18 



