14 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEK. 



because of its vitality and certainty cf growth, 

 because of its shape and habit, because it flour- 

 ishes on dry or moist ground, and on moist it ■will 

 convert the slough into a timber belt, planted on 

 the sides of the slough ; because the quality of 

 the timber is sufficiently strong for all purposes 

 for which the hardest woods are not required. 

 It is fine grained, admits of a good polish. 

 Kitchen ware, all wooden ware may be made 

 from it. It is easy to split. You can split a log 

 which will make a hundred rails wi^h an ax. It 

 will make rails lasting twenty or thirty years, if 

 kept cff the ground. It grows straight and is 

 more easily worked into shingles than the pine. 

 The advantage soonest to be reaped will be in 

 the way of fuel. Had I five years ago planted 

 an acre with this, I should now be independent 

 of other sources for fuel, for in five years an 

 acre of it will give more fuel than a family can 



possibly use. 



Mr. Bryant — How about its warping quality 

 for shingles ? 



Mr. Overman — I don't know. 



Dr. Morse — How many cuttings are needed for 

 an acre ? 



Mr. Overman — At four feet apart, as I set 

 them, it would take a fraction less than 3,000. 

 The ground work of its availability is, that all 

 you have to do is to put a stick in the ground, 

 and it will grow as readily as a tree with roots. 



As to the question of fuel, I asked a railroad 

 engineer of the relative value of different woods 

 for fuel. He said that wood was valuable in 

 proportion to its specific gravity ; that so many 

 pounds of any wood would raise the same 

 amount of steam. 



Mr. M. L, Dunlap — I cheerfully give my tes- 

 timony in its favor. Maehan says it will grow 

 fifty feet high in dry soil, and eighty feet in wet 

 soil. The labor of planting is nominal. It 

 grows Rapidly. Let a man get 1,000 cuttiugs 

 this year and next year he has 10,000, and the 

 next year 100,000. An acre nine years old will 

 give 100 cords of wood, equal to eleven cords a 

 year. That it splits freely there is evidence on 

 every hand. My German gardener says he has 

 been familiar with it in Europe. He says it 

 makes a board nearly equal to pine, not warping 

 and just as good for all purposes not requiring 

 exposure to weather. It will be so plenty in a 

 short time as to be our cheapest fuel. That 

 man who is four or five miles from timber is 

 blind to his own interest who does not plant one 

 or two acres of this on his home farm for fuel, I 



he is a practical spendthrift. In fifteen years 

 we shall see it in the mills and being used large- 

 ly for timber and other economical purposes. In 

 ten years it makes a good dead fence. I have 

 not regarded it as so valuable for posts. I do not 

 regard it as valuable for many purposes as 

 the black walnut and other woods, in itself con- 

 sidered, but as superior to them when taking into 

 account its availability, cheapness hardiness and 

 rapidity of growth. In three years it grows 

 from sixteen to eighteen feet high. Taking these 

 things into view the White Willow challenges 

 every other tree. I believe it to bo superior to 

 t' e silver leaf maple. I have a plantation of 

 that four years old, and in six or eight years I 

 will have more dollars worth of wood if I take 

 them up and set out the willow Blips next spring. 

 It is a bounty to the prairies. 



Mr. Overman — If it is cut down when not grow- 

 ing, it starts up again and grows with greater 

 rapidity. 



Mr. Stimson — He grew this on his father's 

 farm in England, He tried this identical willow. 

 My father and myself examined it critically, and 

 found it our old friend. He says it will last for 

 posts fifty years. There are old gate posts at 

 home fifty years old, solid and strong. He says 

 it will last longer if placed in a stream two or 

 three months, and thoroughly saturated with wa- 

 ter. I know it is valuable. Nothing else grows 

 80 rapidly or easily. You cannot get farmers to 

 buy maples and the like from nurseries, but these 

 can be stuck in and will grow. The wood burns 

 readily and briskly. We use it for baking ; the 

 bakers use it for their big ovens. As to a hedge, 

 I have not so much faith in it, but as a tree there 

 13 no doubt about it. 



Mr. Minier — An Englishman told me that one 

 would grow rich if he cultivated this willow, 

 while with others he would grow poor. But it is 

 best to move with caution, for we sometimes find 

 ourselves mistaken. Our experience with locusts 

 is an instance, which we once thought the very 

 thing, but now throw' aside as worthless. Nature 

 has furnished us with trees natural to our soils 

 and needing but slight cultivation to grow into 

 noble forests, as the black and white walnut. 

 Exotics may cheat us, but those which are indige- 

 nous never betray. Now it seems to me impos- 

 sible in the nature of things that this can be as 

 good for fuel as our harder, denser woods. For 

 building purposes I think it doubtful. For 

 shingles and exposure to weather, it seems to me 

 from the very texture of the wood, that it mast 

 be worn out by rains. 



