OSIER WILLOWS BROOMCORN. 197 



694. Osier willows are cultivated for the purpose of 

 basket making. Among the varieties most approved are 

 those known as the Dutch willow, the purple willow, the 

 round-leaved, and the long-leaved triandrous willow. 



695. Willows will grow in a great variety of soils if 

 thpy be only moist enough ; but deep, rich, moist intervals 

 or low alluvial lands, lying on the margin of streams, 

 especially such as have a southern exposure protected 

 from high winds, arc most suited to them. 



697. The willow grows well on moist soils, but it 

 should not be too wet, and in many cases draining the 

 land is advisable, so that it may be ploughed deeply and 

 prepared as if for corn or any other highly cultivated 

 farm crop. It is then ready to receive the cuttings. 



697. The slips or cuttings are about two feet long, and 

 should be set perpendicularly in the soil one foot apart, in 

 rows about three feet apart. They should be kept clean of 

 weeds the first year or two, either with the hoe or the 

 cultivator. The osiers may be cut for the first time in 

 about two years after they are set, and may afterwards be 

 cut annually early in the spring. 



698. Broomcorn does best in a deep, warm, alluvial soil, 

 such as is best suited to Indian corn. The land should 

 be ploughed in the fall, if sward land, and cultivated in 

 spring, or well harrowed and prepared very much as 

 for Indian, corn. The seed is sown with a seed sower as 

 early in spring as practicable, in hills about two and a 

 half or three feet apart. It is hoed and thinned out 

 soon after coming up, six or eight stalks being left in 

 each hill, and afterwards cultivated between the rows 

 once or twice in the season. 



699. When the season is sufficiently long, broomcorn is 

 allowed to grow until the seed is ripe and hard. It is then 



