WILLOWS: THEIR GROWTH, USE, AND IMPORTANCE. 31 



Excelsior is usually manufactured into three grades — coarse, 

 medium, and fine, the latter being called wood wool. Willow goes 

 into the first two grades, but not into the wood wool, largely on ac- 

 count of its color. Pure willow excelsior is seldom seen, because the 

 willow is usually worked in more or less as an adulterant. Candy 

 manufacturers discriminate against willow excelsior on the ground 

 that it taints their wares. 



Excelsior manufacturers in Indiana pay $7 to $7.50 per rank 

 delivered at the mill for peeled willow cut in 4J-foot lengths. The 

 pieces must be not more than 6 inches in diameter or split so that 

 at least one side of a quartered log is not wider than 6 inches. 



CHARCOAL. 



Though most of the charcoal manufactured is a side product of 

 wood-distillation plants, the making of willow charcoal has been a 

 separate industry for years. Willow charcoal is especially suitable 

 for certain grades of black powder, and is in demand for chemical and 

 medicinal purposes because it produces a very pure carbon. Several 

 powder mills in the Eastern States, after having used all the native 

 willows within many miles of the mill, have induced farmers to plant 

 willows. These people, following the example of the powder mills, 

 have grown "pollard" willows by setting out long poles and then crop- 

 ping at intervals the sprouts produced at the top. 



The general price paid for "powder willows" delivered at the mills 

 has been $6 per cord, green, or $7.50 per cord, peeled. Peeling done 

 in the winter has cost $1.50 per cord. The sticks are 4 feet long and 

 range in size from 1 inch to 5 inches. Above this size sticks are 

 split. Splitting costs about $1 per cord. Of late years willows have 

 become so scarce in several of these localities that considerable material 

 has been imported from a distance, and often the companies have 

 paid the transportation charges, giving the mill prices for cordwood 

 delivered at the nearest railroad point. No distinction is made be- 

 tween the different species of willows, as any willows of the desirable 

 size seem to produce a high grade of charcoal. 



PULP. 



Willow wood is used to a limited extent for paper pulp, although 

 its short fiber makes it useful only as a filler for the longer fibered 

 woods. In the North, where most of the paper mills are located, 

 willow floes not occur in sufficient quantities to be given any particular 

 attention. In tine South, however, along the lower Mississippi and 

 its tributaries, I here is a good deal of willow which is not largo enough 

 for saw timber but would be suitable for pulpwood. On many 

 thousands of acres trees from 5 to 15 inches in diameter form dense 

 stand-. These could for the most part be logged and transported 



