THE GENESEE FARMER. 



85 



CULTIVATION AND USE OF WILLOWS. 



The Transactions of the Highland and Agricul- 

 tural Society of Scotland contains an essay on the 

 above subject. It was awarded the gold medal of 

 tbe Society. A few extracts will be read with 

 interest. 



The importance of willows to man has been re- 

 cognised from the earliest ages. A crop of willows 

 was considered so valuable in the time of Cato, 

 that be ranks the willow field next in value to the 

 vineyard or garden. 



I need not enumerate the various purposes for 

 which they are employed, but simply remark that 

 ihe basket-maker, the turner and the cooper, would 

 ije less economical and useful were it not for the 

 jenus Salix. Charcoal and cases of lead pencils 

 ire also made from willow wood. Boards and 

 planks of the willow are well fitted for scaffolding, 

 and sheeting for carts, lofts, etc. ; and in localities 

 where small timber is scarce, we cut it up for pal- 

 ing rails. Being of a tough nature and light, it is 

 very well adapted for these purposes. The very 

 best kind of charcoal is made from willows, and is 

 highly esteemed in the making of gunpowder. 

 The bark is used for tanning several kinds of leath- 

 er. So from this we may learn that the consump- 

 tion of willows, if more extensively grown, migfrt 

 be greater ; and plantations, or large beds of osiers 

 might be very advantageously grown in almost any 

 soil, such as banks of rivers, drained moors, etc., 

 and, annually cut, would produce a sum of money 

 that I have no doubt would largely remunerate the 

 grower. And from land that can not otherwise be 

 made available for tillage, notwithstanding the vi- 

 cissitudes of seasons, taking good and bad under 

 view, the writer has experimentally ascertained 

 that an acre of willows or osiers will often bring 

 »he grower a larger sum of money than an acre of 

 wheat ; and likewise from land that would be al- 

 most useless for other crops. 



It is rather astonishing that the growth of them 

 is not more attended to both in England and Scot- 

 land. 



As regards the nature of the soil and subsoil 

 suitable for growing them in to the best perfection, 

 osiers delight in banks of rivers or drained moors, 

 and are greatly invigorated by occasional floods or 

 irrigations. Plantations of them may also be 

 formed, and will succeed well, on low spongy bot- 

 toms along tbe margins of streams. 



In the great majority of farms will be found 

 level, marshy, wet spots, which, by drainage, can 

 not well be made available for tillage, which might 

 be planted with the willow, and would afterward 

 recompense the proprietor or farmer in a two-fold 

 way. The land might be prepared in various ways 

 for this crop, owing to the extent and nature of the 

 eoil. Where the land will admit of being plowed 

 and harrowed, and has formerly undergone culti- 

 vation, I find that, at the present prices of willow 

 Bets or plants, and the expense of labor, it would 

 not cost more than $44 per acre, allowing the 

 plants to be planted at a distance of 28 inches by 

 18 inches apart. But I find that for plantations of 

 any considerable extent for osiers, the ground 

 should be formed by the spade into beds of from 8 

 to 9 feet broad, with intervening furrows or narrow 



ditches to carry oft* the water. The plantation ' 

 may be made at any time between the tall of the 

 leaf and an advanced period in spring- but the 

 last two weeks of February and the firsv week of 

 March are the most proper times for planting the 

 willows. Cuttings 15 inches long should be taken 

 with a knife on an upward slope from well ripened 

 wood of either two or three years growth ; experi- 

 mental trial convinces me that they grow more 

 luxuriantly when planted about two-thirds of their 

 length in the ground, than when they are less 

 deeply planted. 



Having at one time about an acre of willows un- 

 der my care, it all received the same preparation ; 

 but after the number of cuttings required were 

 lopped off from the plants of second year's growth 

 and dressed to the length of 15 inches, I caused 

 the sets or cuttings of No. 1, or one-third part of 

 the said acre, to be put in the soil to the depth of 

 10 inches. No. 2, as another third part of the 

 same, had its cuttings planted to the depth of 1 

 inches. No. 3, another third part, planted to the 

 depth of 4 inches. A decided difference was yearly 

 to be seen in the growth of the plants — No. 1 pro- 

 ducing in autumn of the third year one-fourth 

 value of more willows than No. 2; and No. 2 equiv- 

 alent, or nearly so, to the same value over No. 8. 

 I can learn from frequent trials that, when depth 

 of soil can be obtained, osiers succeed best in a 

 deep, moist, free soib— ground dug to the depth of 

 24 inches, with a small quantity of dung and old 

 lime rubbish put in the bottom of the trench. 



The willow, for the use of the basket-maker, 

 should be cut every year slopingly with the knife, 

 within three buds of the point whence the shoot 

 issued, and will admit of being cut back once in 

 three years for the use of the cooper, exactly to 

 the swell of the shoot of the three years growth — 

 thus compressing the plant back to its ancient 

 dwarf form, at the same time realising a handsome 

 return. 



Moreover, by treating osiers in this way, they 

 will last and procuce well for a great many years. 

 The ground should be deeply stirred with the hoe 

 and kept clear of weeds ; but digging with a spade 

 around the roots of willows often proves very hurt- 

 ful to the fibrous feeders, as we often meet with a 

 great portion of such oozing and growing very 

 near the surface of the soil. Plantations of osiers 

 thus treated, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of 

 the seasons, will bring the grower at least the 6una 

 of $60 for every year after they arrive at their full 

 stage of growth. This sum of $60 I have minute- 

 ly tested, can be at the present time realized from 

 an acre of willows, after all expenses of cleaning 

 and cutting down the crop are deducted. 



The way in which willows are most commonly 

 disposed of after being cut is — they are sorted into 

 trusses and tied into bundles of two and sometimes 

 three feet in circumference; and if intended to be 

 stripped of their bark, they are set on their thick 

 end, immersed a few inches in standing water, and 

 left there until the latter part of the following 

 month of May. 



It has of late been asserted by various respecta- 

 ble parties that as high a sum as from $65 to $70 

 of net profit, and sometimes more, could be derived 

 at the present time from an acre of willows, under 

 very ordinary treatment. Thev succeed best in 



