218 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



twenty-five thousand to the acre, as I have done. In four 

 years from that time, if you have taken care of them, you 

 can cut off a thousand or two thousand hoop poles, and the 

 fifth year you ought to be able to cut off from one to two hun- 

 dred dollars' worth ; and if you have any market for such 

 things here, as there is almost anywhere in Massachusetts, 

 for five years from that year you ought to be able to cut off 

 from sixty to one hundred dollars' worth a year. If any of 

 you have an acre or half an acre of such land as that, suppose 

 you try it. It will not hurt the land. Your land is not 

 worth more than five or ten dollars an acre. Plant it in the 

 way 1 have suggested, and if hoops are worth what they are 

 worth now, I will guarantee that you will be able to get, 

 after the first four years, from sixty to one hundred dollars 

 worth of hickory poles annually from that land. 



Mr. Heesey. I want to tell the farmers a great deal bet- 

 ter thing. If you want to raise hoop poles or binders for 

 boxes, which are always in demand, take the European 

 basket willow and plant it on your sandy plains, where your 

 land is warm and light, and in three years you will get a 

 good hoop pole. I have them now growing on sandy land, 

 and they have grown nine feet and seven inches in a year. 

 I don't say they will all grow so vigorously as that, but they 

 will grow from five to seven feet in one year. If you are 

 going to make hoop poles, I think you want to take them, 

 the first year after they grow up, and strip the leaves down 

 from the top to the bottom ; then you will have a perfectly 

 straight, smooth and clear stalk. 



Question. Can you sell those for hoops ? 



Mr. Hersey. Yes, sir; you can sell them. They make 

 the best of binders for boxes, and they will be just about as 

 large at the top as they are at the bottom. If you don't 

 want to sell them for hoop poles you may sell them the first 

 year for baskets. They are worth in the market to-day 

 about seven cents a pound after they are stripped, and they 

 are a profitable crop. Therefore, I would say to the farmers 

 of Massachusetts, here is an industry which you can take 

 hold of and make a profit on it, if you will first find out 

 whether you have a market. 



Mr. Fitch. One word about that. One of the things 



