Osier Culture in the United States. 



391 



for the education of managers of forest properties. An 

 attempt will also be made, so far as the means placed at the 

 disposal of the College permit, to provide for more elementary 

 instruction, which is desirable for rangers, wood-w^orkers, 

 and others, who in their occupations can profit Irom such 

 knowledge. The instruction thus proposed may be given in 

 short summer or winter courses at other points than Cornell 

 University, or at the College forest establishment itself. 

 There will also be provided in the College shorter courses to 

 meet the needs of other classes of students, who as a matter 

 of general education wish to have a cursory acquaintance 

 with the various aspects of the subject, and those who, as 

 prospective owners of woodlands or farmers, desire some 

 technical, especially sylvicultural, knowledge. 



It may be observed that the art of forestry is as yet 

 hardly practised in the United States, but it is believed 

 that within' a few years the call for professional foresters 

 will be comparatively large. The Government has reserved 

 some thirty million acres of the public timberland as 

 forest reservations, and an administration of the same has 

 been ordered which sooner or later will require professional 

 advice. There is a Division of Forestry attached to the 

 Department of Agriculture, but this has acted hitherto 

 mainly as a bureau of investigation and information on 

 forestry matters not requiring the services of professional 

 foresters. 



Osier Culture in the United States. 



The Forestry Division of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture has recently published a report on the cultivation 

 of osier willows in that country, where immense areas of un- 

 utilised land along many rivers, portions of the sea-coast, and 

 of some uplands and prairies not suitable for any other agri- 

 cultural pursuit, are said to invite capital and energy to invest 

 in osier growing, chiefly for the manufacture of basket-ware. 



According to the census of 1880 there were in the United 

 States 304 willow-ware establishments with a capital of 



