186 Forty-ninth Report on the State Museum 



baskets. A small proportion of osiers are imported annually from France, 

 Belgium, and Germany, but they are decidedly inferior to the home- grown. 



The Basket-Making Industry. 



This industry is at present, the sole one of Liverpool, since the salt 

 industry proving unremunerative, has been abandoned. About 150 fami- 

 lies are engaged in the manufacture of baskets, employing the children 

 and often the entire household. It has been a profitable industry, as 

 show^n by the fact that most of the dwelling-houses in Liverpool are 

 owned by their occupants, and have been paid for out of its proceeds. 

 The amount invested in this place in the growing and manufacture, is 

 estimated at a mihion and a half of dollars. The above, perhaps unin- 

 teresting details are given to show the economic importance of the insect 

 ravages which will next be noticed. 



Steady Increase of the Insect. 

 This willow-feeding insect was known as injurious in Onondaga 

 county as far back as the year 1875, when 57 acres of willows were 

 destroyed in a swamp in Clay, Onondaga county. This was discourag- 

 ing to the willow-growers: fewer willows were grown for a time there- 

 after, and but little was heard of the insect. Our first recent information 

 of it is that a gentleman who collected insects in Liverpool, took some 

 of the beetles on basswood in 1887. From that time it seems to have 

 been steadily on the increase, but not until the last year (1894) had it 

 multiplied to such an extent as to claim general attention. Its destruc- 

 tiveness the present year is greatly in excess of that of the preceding. 

 It is stated that the cutting of this year will fall short of that of 1894 by 

 1,000 tons. A grower who grew 65 tons in 1894, will this year cut but 

 25 tons. Many fields have been abandoned, and will be plowed up, and 

 others will only be cut in order to permit of a possible more successful 

 growth another year. There is a wide-spread discouragement and a fear 

 that the industry, which is the sole support of the town, is doomed. 



Transformations and Habits. 

 In inquiring into the life-history of the insect, no definite information 

 could be given me of the time required for its transformations or the 

 number of the broods; the number is generally thought to be three- 

 The hibernating beetle makes its appearance toward the last of April, 

 and is in readiness to attack the sprouts as soon as they start in May. 

 It is said that they do not feed on the leaves, but at first only upon the 



