71 



Eiirly ill May of the present year \ was notified that the ravages of 

 the insect had commenced, that it Avas operating;- more numeronsly and 

 seriously than ever before, tliat tlie wiHow growers were discouraged, 

 and would be compelled to abandon the culture unless the insect could 

 be controlled. My i)resence was requested; but I was prevented from 

 nialdng the desired visit at the time, and it was necessarily deferred 

 until the month of August. Although then too late to see the active 

 operations of the insect, I was able to look over the ground thoroughly; 

 to meet and confer with the willow growers and basket makers; to 

 learn from them tlie extent and importance of the industry, its threat- 

 ened destruction, and what was being done to avert the calamity. 



Tlie willow grown is the European osier. It is propagated from pieces 

 cut by a machine into 9-inch lengths and set (> inches into the ground. 

 These are i)laced about 14 inches apart, in rows o feet apart, permitting 

 the use of a cultivator between them and hoeing as often as necessary. 

 The fields are liberally enriched with bainyard manure. An ordinary 

 soil is as well adapted to its growth as a wet one. It can be cut for use 

 the first year, but is not in full vigor until the third or fourth year, and 

 continues to yield good crops for ten or twelve years, when it should 

 be plowed up and set out anew. A good growth will average about 6 

 feet in height. It is cut in November, when the leaves have fallen. It 

 may then be steamed for loosening the bark, and the i)eeling is done 

 by children in the shops of the basket makers. 



The steaming — submitting to exhaust steam for about twenty min- 

 utes in large boxes holding 2 tons of the willow, placed on a heavy 

 truck for convenience in gathering and delivering it — is done by two 

 establishments in Liverpool, one of which, that of Mr. A. H. Crawford, 

 treated 1,800 tons last year. 



The green willow is worth from $15 to 815 per ton ; when peeled and 

 dried, cents a pound. The growers raise from one fourth of an acre 

 to 00 acres each. Mr. E. T. Black, a very successful grower, who finds 

 an abundant return for the labor bestowed upon his crop, cultivates 20 

 acres. The yield is from 3 to 8 tons per acre. About 500 acres are 

 grown in the town of Salina, Onondaga County. 



In addition to Onondaga County, where the crop is grown the most 

 extensively, it is also grown in Oswego, Oneida, Madison, Cayuga, 

 Schuyler, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Livingston, ^Monroe, Oenesce, and 

 Wyoming counties, but I am not able to give the extent of cultivation 

 in the several counties or the comparati\ e amount of injury from the 

 willow beetle in them. 



As before stated, the willow of western New York is not a native, but 

 has been introduced from France. It is the osier, or basket willow of 

 Europe {lS(iH.v viminalis). A (lerman willow is grown to a limited extent. 

 It is a taller and stouter plant, sometimes attaining 12 or 14 feet in 

 height. It is not so subject to insect attack, but ir is less serviceable 

 for baskets, being coarser, less pliant, and only adapted for the heavier 

 bottoms of baskets. 



