192 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULI'URAL SOCIETY. 



latter experiment has shown that the best kinds of willows for 

 that part of Skye are Longskins and Black Osiers. On the 

 site of the old loch these two kinds have done very well for 

 a virgin crop, and in the garden the growth of Longskins is 

 quite remarkable. It has been found that Black Mauls, which 

 of course are a kind of willow which does not grow to an 

 excessive size, have done very well in any ground which has 

 been cultivated in the past. 



To enable the crofters to prosecute this small industry to a 

 greater extent, a syndicate of Edinburgh gentlemen has started 

 a basket factory in Kilmuir, Skye, and are now offering to take 

 as many willows as the crofters can grow. The price to be 

 offered for them is about _;^3 per ton, in their green state. This 

 factory is also taking young crofters and training them to be 

 basket-makers. It is anticipated that it will be possible to get 

 from four to six tons of willows from an acre of the land there. 



Mr Webster communicates to the Timber Trade Journal the 

 following short article : — 



Willows for Basket-Making. 



Preferential railway and boat rates, aided by keen foreign 

 competition, have well-nigh rendered the time-honoured industry 

 of basket-making a thing of the past in this country. The best 

 classes of osiers, cleaned and ready for manipulation, are now 

 delivered to our principal markets, from continental sources, at 

 so low a price that competition on our part is almost out of the 

 question. There are still, however, a few stations — such as 

 in Bedfordshire, the fen districts of Lincoln and Cambridge, and 

 along certain reaches of the Thames — where willow culture 

 is engaged in, though not in the same energetic way as was 

 the case some half a century ago. 



It is perhaps difficult to estimate correctly, but about 7000 

 acres, producing roughly 20,000 tons of osiers, are cultivated 

 in this country at the present time, many small plantations 

 having been grubbed out and the land laid down to other 

 crops* during the past five-and-twenty years. This falling off 

 is much to be regretted, as the sorting and harvesting of osiers, 

 and basket-making, gave light and remunerative employment 

 to a large number of residents, both young and old, of the 



