72 



A small proportiou of osier is imported annually from France, Bel- 

 gium, and Germany, but it is decidedly interior to the home-grown. 



This industry is at present the sole one of Liverpool, since the salt 

 industry, j^roving unremunerative, has been abandoned. About 150 

 families are engaged in the manufacture of baskets, employing the 

 children and often the entire household. It has been a profitable 

 industry, as shown by the fact that most of the dwelling houses in 

 Liverpool are owned by their occupants aud have been paid for out of 

 its proceeds. The amount invested in this place in the growing and 

 manufacture is estimated at $1,500,000. The above perhaps uninterest- 

 ing details are given to show the economic importance of the insect 

 ravages which I sball bring to your notice. 



This willow-feeding insect was known as injurious in Onondaga 

 County as far back as the year 1875, when 57 acres of willows were 

 destroyed in a swam}) in Clay, Onondaga County. This was discour- 

 aging to the willow growers; fewer willows were grown for a time there- 

 after and but little was heard of the insect. Our first recent information 

 of it is that a gentleman who collected insects in Liverpool took some of 

 the beetles on basswood in 1887. From that time it seems to have been 

 steadily on the increase, but not until last year (1804) had it multi- 

 l^lied to such an extent as to claim general attention. Its destructive- 

 ness the present year is greatly in excess of that of the preceding. It 

 Is stated that the cutting of this year will fixll short of that of 1894 by 

 1,000 tons. A grower who grew G5 tons in 1894 will this year cut but 

 25 tons. Many fields have been abandoned and will be plowed up, 

 and others will only be cut in order to permit of a i)ossib]y more suc- 

 cessful growth another year. There is widespread discouragement and 

 a fear that the industry, which is the sole support of the' town, is 

 doomed. 



In inquiring into the life history of the insect no definite informa 

 tion could be given me of the time required for its transformations or 

 the number of the broods. The number is generally thought to be 

 three. The hibernating beetle makes its appearance toward the last of 

 April, and is in readiness to attack the sprouts as soon as they start in 

 May. It is said that they do not feed on the leaves, but at first only 

 upon the ends of the tips. When the willows are more advanced, with 

 the second brood of beetles this tip-feeding habit becomes more harm- 

 ful, as they then girdle the twig by eating away the bark, causing the 

 tip to bend over and die, necessitating the putting out of one or more 

 side shoots, which seriously impairs the value of the i^lant, i^roducing 

 unsightly bends, necessitating trimming before use, and materially 

 interfering with the stripping of the bark. The larvae feed only on the 

 leaves. The eggs being laid on the under surface of the leaves, in clus- 

 ters averaging about 40, the larvfe, on emerging, in company eat away 

 the epidermis and the parenchyma between the small reticulating veins, 

 leaving the upper epidermis unbroken. This feeding habit makes a 



