70 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



of an individual ■who broke up an old rule or 

 habit of the buyers of an important staple of 

 the Old Dominion. 



Tobacco, was formally sold by the note of the 

 inspectors, which simply intlicated the weight, and 

 all that passed inspection was presumed to be 

 nearly of the same value. The uniform price was 

 twenty shillings Virginia currency, equal to$3.83^ 

 Federal money, per hundred pounds. Mr. Benja- 

 min Hatcher, of Manchester, (father of Mr. John 

 H. Hatcher, in the Exchange Bank,) was the first 

 to break through this rule, buying it at liberal 

 prices, according to the quality and condition of the 

 article, as well as the general state of the market. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 EUROPEAN BASKET "WILLOW. 



Being one of the first to introduce into this 

 State the European Basket Willow, and be- 

 lieving that when its cultivation is properly 

 understood, it can be made not only one of 

 the surest crops the farmer can grow, but also 

 one of the most profitable, I have thought an 

 article on this subject might not be unprofit- 

 able to. the numerous readers of the Farmer. 



The soil best adapted to the growth of the 

 European Willow has been generally supposed 

 to be a heav3% wet soil, — nearly every planta- 

 tion which has come within the range of my 

 observation having been set on meadow land, — 

 but from experiments made on a variety of 

 soils, I am satisfied that this is a mistake. To 

 my surprise I have found them to make a bet- 

 ter growth on a sand bank, than on a rich, 

 wet meadow. They seem to make the best 

 growth on a warm, rich, sandy loam, where 

 either corn or potatoes would grow luxuri- 

 antly. On such soil they sometimes make a 

 growth of ten feet in one season, and will 

 make an averaged growth of six to eight feet ; 

 being very straight and slim, surpassing in 

 quality an} thing 1 have ever seen imported. 

 Our hot sun seems exactly adapted to its 

 growth. During our hottest days in July, in 

 a warm soil, they will make a growth of from 

 three to four inches in twenty-four hours, 

 while in a wet day they grow not more than 

 one-half an im-h. 



To prepare the soil for a plantation it should 

 be ploughed and planted two years with some 

 crop which requires the land to be well culti- 

 vated ; it should also be made rich enough to 

 produce not less than fifty bushels of Indian 

 corn to the acre. 



In transplanting the willows, tops are pre- 

 ferred to roots ; twigs about one-half an inch 

 in diameter should be selected and cut from 

 twelve to fifteen inches in length. As early 

 in April as the weather will permit, the land 

 should be well ploughed and furrowed three 

 feet apart. In these furrows the cuttings 

 should be set one foot from each other, not 

 perpendicular, but on an angle of about forty- 

 tive degrees. The first year the land should 

 be well cultivated. After this they require 



but very little attention except harvesting the 

 crop. 



The first years' growth should not be cut, 

 but after the second years' growth, sometime 

 between October and March, they should be 

 cut as near the ground as possible. This crop 

 is worth but little except to make cuttings for 

 a new plantation ; but after this, a valuable 

 crop may be cut every year between Decem- 

 ber and ]\Iarch, — February being the best 

 month, if the weather is not too cold and the 

 snow is not too deep. No injury will occur 

 to the roots if the crop is secured before the 

 warm days in March start the circulation of 

 sap. The canes should be bound in bundles 

 of about fifty pounds each, and set in three or 

 four inches of water. Sometime in May it 

 will be found the bark will peal off very easily ; 

 they should then be stripped and sent to market. 



During the past six or eight years, there has 

 been a great demand for Basket Willow. It 

 has been sold as high as eighteen cents per 

 pound ; but at six cents per pound, it yields a 

 profit of not less than fifty dollars per acre. 

 There is a ready sale for all that is grown and 

 a very large quantity is imported. I have no 

 willows for sale, nor time to answer any c[ues- 

 tions, except through the Farmer. 



E. Hersey. 



Hingliam, Mass., Dec, 5, 1868. 



Remarks. — The cultivation of the willow 

 on a sand bank, or even on a warm, rich, 

 sandy loam is a new idea to us. From our 

 observation, as well as our reading, water and 

 willows have become closely associated in our 

 mind. They grow in wet places on our own 

 farm, and wherever willows flourish we gen- 

 erally find them within reach of water. A 

 late writer says that in England, where the 

 white willow may be seen growing extensively 

 in ten or a dozen counties, it is not grown on 

 any but moist soil ; in springy and wet situa- 

 tions, unfit for cultivation by reason of being 

 too moist or wet, it may be found in quantity, 

 but not on dry upland at all, except by the 

 side of a ditch, or exceptionally wet places. 



The common idea among cultivators of the 

 necessity of "a heavy wet soil" for the growth 

 of the willow is not only common but very 

 ancient. Mr. Lowell in his recent poem, 

 "Under the Willows," speaks of trees of that 

 variety 



"that lean alonfr the brink 



Where the steep upland tlips into the marsh." 



And a much older writer than Mr. Lowell 

 speaks of "the willows of the brook." It is 

 with much pleasure, therefore, that we publish 

 the foregoing statement by Mr. Hersey, of 

 his success in cultivating the Basket Willow 



