INTRODUCTION 



THE basis of this work originally appeared in the 

 pages of the Journal of the Board of Agriculture during 

 the years 1911 and 1912 over the signatures of Mr. 

 W. P. Ellmore and the present writer. Revised by 

 Mr. Ellmore, the articles were published in 1913 by 

 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in the form of 

 a pamphlet which is out of print. With the permis- 

 sion of the Board, and further revised and amplified 

 by Mr. Ellmore, they are now issued in book form to 

 the public at a price which it is hoped will ensure 

 their wide and careful consideration and result in their 

 practical application. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have, of 

 course, no responsibility whatever for this book as 

 now issued. 



Mr. Ellmore's thanks are due to the Board for per- 

 mission to reprint from the Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture a chapter on " Insect Pests " which appeared 

 in the issue of November 1917, and for the loan of 

 the blocks of the photographs illustrating this volume. 



The treatise on willow (or osier) cultivation here 

 offered to the public is the first attempt in English 

 to deal in a compendious and practical manner with 

 a much-neglected branch of agriculture. Among other 

 deficiencies in home supplies of raw material which 

 the war has revealed, that of willows for basket -making 

 purposes has been patent. The output of certain war 

 material and the harvesting and marketing of farm 



