proceedings of the farmers' club. 253 



Flax Growing. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — I am in constant receipt of letters of inquiry about 

 flax growing- and flax machinery. I allude to it now to show how deeply 

 the public mind is agitated upon this question. A letter in my hand from 

 Mr. G. W. Shepard, Geneva, Ashtabula county, Ohio, says that great quanti- 

 ties have been grown there for the seed, the straw being of no value, for 

 want of machinery to dress it at little expense, and he wants to* know if 

 we cannot recommend somebody to go there and set up machinery to save, 

 this product, which is now wasted. 



The White Willow. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The same gentleman inquires if the willow which 

 grows common all over the country is not just as good for live fence as the 

 white willow of Illinois. 



Mr. Asher L. Smith, Lebanon, Conn. — The white willow is nothing new; 

 there are plenty of the trees all over the country, just as good as those iu 

 Illinois, that will make a fence in swampy places, but they are not suitable 

 for hedging a farm, because the roots take up too much room in the soil, 

 to the injury of crops. If the willow is planted, and the shoots interlaced, 

 a good live fence can be made; and I think the shoots might be cut for 

 basket makers. 



Mr. Carpenter said that he had lately seen a permanent fence in a wet 

 place, made by setting willow trees twenty years ago, and cutting chestnut 

 rails just long enough to fasten between them, so that the trees have 

 grown over the ends, holding them firmly in place; and the general opinion 

 of those present was that that is about the only way that willow trees can 

 be used for fencing, and that they are only valuable in very wet places, 

 where it is difficult to sustain any other kind of fence. The common wil- 

 low will not do for making baskets. 



Cultivation and Use of Willows. 



FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND, 



Willow makes the very best kind of charcoal, ard is highly esteemed in 

 the making of gunpowder. The bark is used for tanning several kinds of 

 leather. So from this we may learn that the consumption of willows, if 

 more extensively grown, might be greater; and plantations, or large beds 

 of osiers, might be very advantageously grown in almost any soil, such as 

 banks of rivers, etc., and, annually cut, would produce a sum of money 

 that I have no doubt would largely remunerate the grower. And from 

 land that cannot otherwise be made available for tillage, notwithstanding 

 the vicissitudes of seasons, taking good and bad under view, the writer 

 has experimentally ascertained that an acre of willows or osiers will often 

 bring the grower a larger sum of money than an acre of wheat; and like- 

 wise from land that would be almost useless for other crops. 



As regards the nature of soil and subsoil suitable for growing them to 

 the best perfection, osiers delight in banks of rivers or drained swamps, 

 and are greatly invigorated by occasional floods or irrigations. Plantations 



