THE CULTIVATION OF BASKET WILLOWS 19 



when cut. There is always a very keen demand for 

 well-grown two-year-old rods of good quality, either 

 as buff or white, for manufacturing strong hampers, 

 such as are largely used in the hosiery-making dis- 

 tricts, as well as in Yorkshire and Lancashire. These 

 two-year-olds are required for staking, or lid and 

 bottom sticks, around which the one-year-old rods 

 are worked. 



Cutting is usually done by men with knives illus- 

 trated (Fig. 3). In no circumstances must this part 

 of the work be performed in a slipshod or careless 

 manner. The knife must be inserted on the outer 

 side of the rods, and cut inwards and upwards, quite 

 close to the head, with a sharp and clear cut, free from 

 split wood or torn bark. When the cutters are careless 

 many small spurs will remain on the head, and since 

 these spurs form the butt end of the rod, much weight 

 of material is sacrificed. Moreover, as the crop is 

 sold by weight, a needless financial loss is the result. 

 The spurs also invariably die off during the next grow- 

 ing season, dead wood accumulates, and still further 

 and longer spurs are left when cutting time again comes 

 round, until in the course of a few years the head, 

 which should at no period be larger than a cocoanut, 

 is frequently found as big as a cabbage. Round this 

 accumulate moss and various fungoid growths, and the 

 bearing capacity of the head is reduced in some in- 

 stances quite 50 per cent. When some of the spurs 

 live, as frequently happens, they throw off many 

 small and half -developed rods, tending to the earlier 

 exhaustion of the head. Cutting the maiden crop, 

 over wkich too much care cannot be shown, and on 

 which the future compact head-formation depends, 

 should be done by day workers. Afterwards cutting 



