OSIER WILLOWS. 249 
covered sheds until wanted. Rods thus treated will be of a 
darker color than those peeled in the spring after the sap has 
started, owing to the fact that the wood is stained by the color- 
ing matter in the bark, which is dissolved and taken up by the 
wood. These dark-colored rods, however, make the most valua- 
ble baskets. Willows should never be cut when the sap is flow- 
ing, as the material is poor, being too soft and turning black 
when peeled. Besides, they injure the plants by robbing them 
of their yearly supply of root nourishment. The cutting should 
always be done carefully, and in such a manner as not to split 
or mutilate the stocks. The peeling is done by pulling the rods 
through a springy wooden fork, shaped like a clothespin, but 
larger, and with blunt edges inside. This presses against the rod 
and loosens the bark in strands without injuring the wood. The 
rod is afterwards dried in the open air and put up in bundles of 
fifty pounds for the market. 
Peeled rods keep much better than those left with the bark 
on, and this is said to be the most profitable way in which to 
market the product. The willow is generally a healthy plant, 
and rather free from insect enemies under ordinary conditions; 
but when grown in large groups of pure willows, it is occasionally 
attacked by rust and also by insects. The leaf-eating insects are 
easily destroyed by Paris green, used in the same way as is com- 
mon for the destruction of the potato bug. 
The Osier Willow, which has here proven most productive 
of the long, slender shoots so desirable for basket-making, is the 
Salix purpurea, and at the University Experiment Station this 
has frequently made a growth of six feet long in the season. 
It should be understood by anyone who undertakes this line of 
work that long, slender rods are desirable, and that one rod six 
feet long may be worth as much as several that are not over 
three or four feet long. Almost any willow may be used for 
making the common, coarse baskets, but for the better class of 
willow goods the special osier willows should be grown. The 
common White Willow and also the Golden Willow produce 
rods of fairly good quality. 
Wisconsin Weeping Willow. 
A willow known among horticulturists as the Wisconsin 
Weeping Willow (botanical name not known) has been grown 
