FRUIT CULTURE. 35 



erwise would be useless, to a good revenue, since a two 

 or three year old willow-stock will earn from 270 to 310 

 florins an acre under favorable circumstances. The 

 valuable kinds of willow are well known to be suitable 

 for industrial and agricultural purposes.* 



* The chief forester, Geyer, in Karlshafen, on the Weser, uses the white wil- 

 low and its varieties, the silver and gold willow, for margins of shores, hedges of 

 meadows and shade for cattle pastures. The hurdle and basket manufactories 

 use the purple and basket, or garden willow, with their varieties, the almond and 

 spurge-laurel willows. Mountain scarps, moist and low-lying fields, and islands 

 that are periodically submerged, are used for these growths. One morning in 

 Hanover, Geyer counted 30,720 saplings, and reckoned an annual gross income 

 of from $60 to $80 from a capital of about $19. Such plantations last from 18 to 

 20 years. The rubbish from the peeling (rind and leaves) furnish when dried a 

 good winter fodder for sheep and goats. The salix caspica affords very good 

 osier twigs for binding, and grows in dry, clayey, sandy ground from six to eight 

 feet high. This and salix viminalis are the best worth cultivating. In the for- 

 est and on the shores of rivers, they now use in Prussia in great masses the bder- 

 willow, particularly for binding together pine slabs two feet in width, which are 

 placed one and one-half feet apart for pheasants' closes, for which they, are pre- 

 ferred before all other kinds. Willows of three years old are also used by coop- 

 ers for hoop-staves, and those of two years old by basket makers. The soil for 

 willows must be dug certainly one and one-half feet deep, and must be sandy 

 ground, even gravelly, with clayey subsoil. In pure clay or loam or with moist 

 subsoil they do not make those strong twigs. Ground free from weeds is neces- 

 sary for willows. On the shore here (of the Danube) were gathered in the tree 

 nursery well-rooted plants set a year ago ; but, in the forest, on the contrary, 

 two year old wood was taken, which is the best for that place, since it is so easily 

 rooted, and one year old wood does not give such strong plants and handsome 

 twigs. 



