AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
83 
much better to do it thoroughly, than to 
leave it half done, as in most cases it is. 
The best time to prepare the ground is in 
the fall, when the other work of the farm is 
not pressing, and there is time to do it well. 
But, whenever it is done, the land should be 
plowed deep and well, and if the subsoil is 
hard, the use of a subsoil plow is very bene¬ 
ficial. It should then be harrowed and brush¬ 
ed until the surface is even and thoroughly 
pulverized. 
Time of Planting. —This may be done 
either in the fall or spring as most conve¬ 
nient. If the cuttings are to be procured 
from a distance, it is better to procure them 
in the winter, as they are sent better in cold 
weather, and set them as early in the spring 
as the ground can be prepared; or the best 
way is to have the ground ready in the fall, 
and set them as soon as the frost is out in the 
spring, while the ground is soft. If they can 
not be set until late, they should be kept in 
a cellar, or some cool place, to keep them 
from growing. I have set them as late as 
June, and had them do well; but they ought 
to be set as early as the first of May. 
Planting, or Setting. —This is a very sim¬ 
ple operation, and not very laborious when 
the ground is mellow. But perhaps some 
will not know what it is that is set, or planted. 
It is not a seed, nor a root, but a cutting, which 
is simply a piece of a Willow rod, ten or 
twelve inches long. When the land and cut¬ 
tings are ready to plant, mark out the land in 
rows, about three feet apart—and be careful 
to make the rows straight; as it is with 
this, as in preparing the land, it can be done 
but once, and will remain a life-time ; and it 
will be much easier cultivating them, and 
look much better to have them straight, than 
to have them crooking about, and running 
into each other—as though those who set 
them were not brought up under the influ¬ 
ence of the “ Maine Law.” But, supposing 
that you have your land marked off straight , 
you put a leather glove or mitten on your 
right hand, and take a basket or pail of cut¬ 
tings in your left ; stick them about one foot 
apart in the rows, and be sure you stick the 
right end down, leaving but one or two buds 
above ground. They rnay be set slanting, 
say at an angle of forty five degrees, if it is 
any easier than to set them perpendicular. 
It will require about 15,000 cuttings to set 
an acre. 
Cultivation. —They should be cultivated 
well the first year. A small harrow or culti¬ 
vator should be run through them often 
enough so that with the help of the hoe the 
ground would be kept loose and free from 
weeds ; and it would be well to run the cul¬ 
tivator a few times through them the second 
year—until they would be damaged by break¬ 
ing down the tops. After the second year 
they will generally shade the ground, so that 
they require no cultivation. 
Cutting, Binding, t fc. —The willows can 
be cut any time after the leaves fall, before 
the buds begin to swell in the spring. They 
can be cut with a knife, or with a hooked in¬ 
strument made for the purpose. They 
should be cut within an inch or two of the 
old stock every year. Bind them into small 
bundles, and be careful to get the lower ends 
even. As soon as it begins to be warm in 
the spring, set them in water sufficiently 
to touch the lower ends of all, and there let 
them stand until they will peel, which will 
be in May and June, in this latitude. If you 
have a brook running through your land, you 
can easily fix a place to set them by build¬ 
ing a dam so as to flow a level piece, and 
then put up poles once in a few feet, for them 
to lean against, so that the sun may shine 
on them, and the air circulate freely through 
them. Or, in case there is not a brook con¬ 
venient, a small piece of ground, in some low. 
place can be levelled, and after making it as 
tight as possible, bring a stream of water 
into it with spouts or pipes. It costs about 
five dollars per ton to cut and bind them. 
Peeling and Preparing for Market. —In 
peeling willows by hand, as they always 
have been peeled, it was necessary to handle 
them all over twice, one at a time, which 
made it very slow business, requiring the 
labor of a man and a boy to peel one hun¬ 
dred pounds in a day ; but as there is no long¬ 
er a necessity of peeling them in that way, 
it would be needless to describe the opera¬ 
tion. With the machine below shown, the 
peeling is very easily and quickly done ; the 
operator takes a small bundle of the willows 
and feeds them into the machine as he would 
a bundle of grain into a thrashing machihe, 
and they are passed through and come out 
peeled at the rate of from one to two tuns 
per day. There should be a trough or vat of 
water so placed that the rods will fall into 
it as they come out of the machine, and as 
often as the trough is full, rinse them in the 
water, and spread them out to dry. When 
they are sufficiently dry, which will be in a 
few hours after they are peeled, they may 
be tied in bundles, and are ready for market. 
In binding them, put some of the thick ends 
both ways so that the bundles will be as 
large at one end as at the other, and to get 
them tight use a strap with a buckle at one 
end, and draw them together as tight as pos- 
-ible, then tie with strong twine, three or 
four bands to a bundle. They are very 
slippery things, and if not well bound, are 
liable to work loose and thus be scattered 
and lost. Theobjectof havingthem fall into 
water as they come out of the machine is to 
remove the slime, thus preventing them 
from turning color, as it is very desirable to 
have them white. 
Amount Produced per Acre. —This of course 
varies, as with every other crop. The first 
year’s crop will not amount to much, unless 
wanted for cuttings, to increase the planta¬ 
tion. The se cond year they will produce 
about half a crop, and the third, and every 
year thereafter, a whole crop, which will 
vary, according to the land and cultivation, 
from two to five or six tuns an acre—but 
these highest figures can only be obtained in 
the very choicest situations. Two or three 
tuns may be considered as a fair average 
yield in such situations and with such culti¬ 
vation as is herein described. 
Marketing. —New-York City is now the 
chief market for willows, where the price 
per tun varies from $100 to $150, and even 
higher than this for choice qualities. This 
is 5c. to 8c. per pound at wholesale. The 
business will bear increasing to an almost 
unlimited degree, since they can be culti¬ 
vated at one-fourth to one-half the present 
market price, and a reduction of this amount 
would very greatly enlarge the demand. 
From 2 to 5 tuns can be raised on an acre, 
with little more trouble to cultivate them 
than a crop of corn or potatoes. Once plant¬ 
ing is sufficient for a hundred years. 
We present here a cut of the machine in¬ 
vented by Mr. Colby, for peeling them, one 
of which Mr. C. proposes to set up in work¬ 
ing order in our office, to gratify the curios¬ 
ity of any one who may wish to see it in 
operation. We follow the cut with Mr. C.’s 
own description of the machine. 
This machine consists of a frame eight 
feet long, three feet wide, and two and a half 
feet high. On one end of the frame are 
hung two rollers, seven inches in diameter, 
one made of India rubber, and the other of 
wood or iron, so hung that they will roll to¬ 
gether, one over the other, and having also 
an endwise or vibrating motion of an inch 
on each one, given by the lever with a ful¬ 
crum in the center between the rollers, as 
shown in the figure. On the other end of 
the frame are two sets of rollers, one set 
seven and the other set three inches in diam¬ 
eter—all made of India rubber. The small 
ones roll together with the same speed as 
the large rollers on the front end of the ma¬ 
chine, and the other large ones have about 
eight times the velocity. When the machine 
is in motion, the operator takes a bundle of 
willows, and, with the help of a table—which 
is not shown in the figure—feeds them into 
the front rollers, the same as straw is fed 
into a threshing machine, when the vibratory 
motion loosens the bark and tears it to 
pieces. They are then carried along on a 
belt to the small rollers, and the large end 
passes through them, when the large rollers, 
which run much faster, seize them and strip 
them through, and throw them out clean, 
while the small ones hold the loose bark, 
which then rolls through and drops at the 
end of the machine in a pile by itself. 
Sweet Potatoes. —Sweet potatoes are 
excellent in making bread, and makes a pie 
nearly or quite as good as the squash. It 
has a peculiar, agreeable flavor, and is called 
easy of digestion, is wholesome and nutri¬ 
tious. 
The recipe for making pies of the sweet 
potato is as follows : Boil soft, peel and 
mash them. To every quarter of a pound, 
put one quart of milk, three tablespoonfuls of 
butter, four beaten eggs, together with sugar 
and spices to the taste. 
The sweet potato is an excellent crop for 
milk cows, and they are very fond of them. 
