AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
SI 
PLANT TEEES, 
The following extract from a report on 
orchard culture by a committee of the Onei¬ 
da County (N. Y.) Agricultural Society, 
should be read by all. The remarks are as 
true of every town in the country as of 
Oneida county, N. Y.: 
It is to be wondered even, that the land- 
owners of Oneida are not more zealous in 
planting orchards. Nature has given them 
a soil and a climate most propitious for the 
raising of superior apples; inviting markets 
are near at hand, or are easily reached; 
ample inducements are held out in the di¬ 
rection of profit, of pleasantness, and of sen¬ 
timent ; yet many are still slow to enter into 
the full possession of their peculiar advan¬ 
tages as owners of Oneida soil. Who plants 
an apple tree in the soil of Oneida, makes a 
permanent investment, that may be expected 
to increase from year to year, until its origi¬ 
nal value is hundred-folded. Who plants an 
apple tree, makes a prudent provision against 
life’s rainy days, against loss of health, mis¬ 
fortune in business, old age. Who plants a 
tree, extracts something of bitterness from 
the original curse. It was a part of Adam’s 
punishment to be expelled from the society 
of cultivated trees ; to surround one’s self 
with them, is to take some steps towards re¬ 
gaining the Paradise that was lost to man by 
his first transgression. The planted fruit 
tree will be a ^faithful minister to its owner’s 
profit, improvement, health, and happiness. 
It will stand sentinel over his dwelling 
through winters of adversity, when summer 
friends have fled. While its master is sleep¬ 
ing, the tree will be growing. While he is 
traveling, the tree will stay at home and keep 
growing. It will be industrious for him 
through all seasons, converting air, and 
earth, and water into shadow for his foot¬ 
steps, perfume for his parlor, food for his 
table, fuel for his hearth, timber for his use. 
It will serve him contentedly through life, 
and minister to his wants when its life is 
ended. A tree has moral and social uses. It 
is an orthodox, wholesome preacher. It 
will discourse daily homilies on faith, hope, 
patience, and good will to men, with a gentle 
eloquence that steals into the heart, making 
it more roomy and open, and filling all its 
chamber with sunshine. A tree sets an ex¬ 
ample of self-denying benevolence. It em¬ 
broiders its foliage, and ripens its fruit by 
tedious processes ; then gives them all away, 
dropping its last leaf to keep warm the ten¬ 
der plant that has taken root in its shade. 
The poet Yirgil discovers a close relation 
between generous character and generous 
fruit trees ; his native land he celebrates as 
a “ mighty parent of fruit, mighty parent of 
heroes.” Children should have a double 
share of native depravity not to be made bet¬ 
ter by the kindly influences that distill about 
them when they are brought up in the com¬ 
panionship of grand and chivalrous trees. 
Would a man rear a monument to his mem¬ 
ory more to be coveted than one of costliest 
marble, let him plant trees ; they will sing 
his praise in measures sweeter than a poet’s, 
hen no envious lips are there to detract. 
Every Family Should Have an Agricul¬ 
tural Paper —It is worth more than it costs 
simply for educational purposes. Parents 
have hardly a right to deprive their families 
of its advantages in these times. Children 
will learn more, as they go to and from 
school, to drive the cows to pasture, or pick 
berries by the way, if their observation is 
quickened, by what they hear their parents 
read or talk over from the agricultural pa¬ 
pers; and when they form habits of reading 
for themselves, such reading is both safe and 
useful. Reader, if your neighbor has no agri¬ 
cultural paper, persuade him to take one ; 
even if he is poor, he can better afford to 
take one than to do without it; for if he 
takes one, his children will be likely to be 
better off—to make a good home for them¬ 
selves, and it may be for him in old age. 
Not all will have farms ; but all will need to 
know something of the garden and orchards 
at least; and we advise no person, who feels 
that he may sometime be dependent upon 
his children, to bring them up without the 
means of instruction in rural economy. It 
should be regarded as essential in the educa¬ 
tion of any child, male or female.—Ameri¬ 
can Cotton Planter. 
WILLOWS A CHOP WOETH LOOKING AFTER, 
We will not venture to even guess at the 
number of willow baskets now used in this 
country. We daily pass through one street 
of this city, where there are apparently some 
thousands of them hourly coming in from a 
great number of large and small manufacto¬ 
ries, located in various parts of this and the 
adjoining cities, and in many villages and 
country towns. From these wholesale stores 
they are sent out to dealers all over the coun¬ 
try, north, east, south and west. That mil¬ 
lions of willow baskets are manufactured 
every year will be readily believed when it 
is remembered that almost every family has 
one of some kind or size, ranging from the 
large clothes or.bread basket, to the smallest 
work basket, or childs toy basket, while in a 
multitude of families, such baskets count by 
the half-dozen or dozen. Besides willow 
baskets, we might enumerate willow cradles, 
children's waggons, &c. 
The most striking fact connected with this 
subject, is that for manufacturing a very large 
proportion of all these baskets, the willows are 
brought from beyond the Atlantic Ocean, 
while we have in this country an unlimited 
amount of soil equaly well adapted with any 
in the world to their production, and which 
can be bought or rented at a lower price per 
acre, than any where else. During the past 
twelve months, we have probably received 
from foreign countries, .sixty to seventy 
thousand tuns of willows for which we have 
sent abroad six to seven millions of dollars. 
And the consumption is rapidly increasing. 
We think we have good reason for saying 
that these willows may all be raised here 
for a much less price than we pay for them, 
and still yield a very large profit to the 
growers, besides furnishing remunerative 
employment to fifteen or twenty thousand 
persons. 
One great cause of the continued confine¬ 
ment of this business to the old world, has 
been the amount of labor required to peel the 
willows and prepare them for the market, 
which could be done more advantagously 
abroad, owing to the relative lower price of 
labor. This has now been obviated, how¬ 
ever, by the recent invention of a machine 
which accomplishes this part of the work 
cheaply and with great rapidity. This ma¬ 
chine will be referred to farther on. But' 
even without any machine, willow raising 
pould be made immensely profitable at the 
prices which have always prevailed for the 
imported article. 
Before alluding further to the profitable¬ 
ness of willow culture, we will give some 
practical directions as to soil, preparation 
&c., chiefly furnished by Mr. Geo. J. Colby, 
of Jonesville, vt., who from his experience in 
the matter is probably the best authority in 
this country. 
Variety. —There are several kinds of wil¬ 
lows which have been recommended. Mr. 
Colby, informs us that he has experimented 
upon every variety he could hear of during 
the past four years, and finds none worth 
cultivating but the one known as the Osier 
Willow or Salix viminalis. All the others 
send out too many side shoots. In other 
soils and localities some of these may suc¬ 
ceed better than with Mr. C., and he gener¬ 
ously offers to furnish any who may wish with 
a quantity of cuttings for experiments. He 
only offers for sale, and warrants his machine 
to peel the Salix viminalis. Of these he pro¬ 
poses to furnish cuttings delivered at the 
Jonesville Depot for $5 per thousand if less 
than ten thousand are taken, and for $3 per 
thousand if ten thousand or more are taken, 
and for $2.06 perthousand where fifty thou¬ 
sand or more are taken. Cuttings can be ob¬ 
tained at the same prices of Erastus Parker, 
Waterbury, Vt. About fifteen thousand are 
required for planting an acre. At the above 
rates the cuttings for one acre would be only 
$45, and for 31 acres at the rate of $31 per 
acre. To this add transportation and we 
have the cost of the seed. 
Locality. —They have been grown well as 
far south as Washington D. C., and we see 
no reason why they may not be equally well 
grown still further south. Our native wil¬ 
lows are not limited to any part of the coun¬ 
try. The next seven paragraphs are from 
Mr. Colby’s Circular. 
Soil and Situation. —The Osier Willow, 
(salix viminalis ,) can be profitably cultivated 
in a great variety of soils, but there are two 
things necessary to ensure its thrifty growth 
in any soil, viz.: richness and moisture—but 
not an excess of moisture. Wet clay, or 
swampy land should be thoroughly drained 
before it is fit for an Osier plantation. A 
deep, rich, sandy loam is the best soil—such 
as the low meadows along our rivers and 
creeks, that are overflowed once or twice a 
year—and if not very rich, a liberal dressing 
of manure will be of great advantage. Ma¬ 
nure from the barn-yard is best, and it 
should be well plowed in. 
Preparation oj the Land. —Too much pains 
can not be taken in preparing the land, as it 
has to be prepared but once only, and it pays 
