272 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 21, 1893. 
water.” Watch those stern judges as they wander along the boxes of 
blooms produced by such opposite treatment, and I venture to say 
without fear of contradiction, that those nurtured with “ warm soft 
water” will be the first to command attention. 
I am glad that “ J. B. R.” finds one “ novel ” point in my “ out of 
date” ideas. This is curious, and I fail to reconcile the two statements, 
“ Novel ” and “ out of date.” “ Novel ” I take to mean of recent origin, 
" out of date” a bygone, exhausted error. Can “ J. B. R.” explain these 
somewhat contradictory terms 1 
1 still maintain that “ warm soft water,” although “ novel ” to your 
correspondent, is one of the safest and cheapest insecticides for ridding 
Peach and other trees of red spider. Allow me to point “ J. B. R.” to 
the concluding words of your able and practical correspondent Mr. G. 
Garner (page 241)—viz., “Avoid the use of cold water.” Is not this 
another convincing proof that my ideas are not based upon imagination 
or odd fancies, but are purely plain unvarnished truths which no 
stubborn facts ” as related can prove “ whimsical ?”— F. Dunn. 
Jean Baptiste Guillot. 
This distinguished rosarian who has just now passed away is the 
third of those French raisers whom we have recently lost, and was 
certainly the foremost of the three in the services which they rendered 
to horticulture. Margottin and Charles Verdier have left behind them 
but one or two Roses that are likely to perpetuate their names ; not so, 
however, Guillot, the raiser of Horace Vernet and La France amongst 
Hybrid Perpetuals, and Catherine Mermet, Edith Giffard, Comtesse de 
Nadaillac, Ernest Metz, Etoile de Lyon and Madame Hoste varieties, 
which will long, I bslieve, perpetuate his memory, and which have won 
him the lasting gratitude of all lovers of the Rose. 
It is many years since I made his acquaintance. His father was then 
alive, and we used to call him young Guillot, though he must at that 
time have been forty years of age. He was an amiable and much 
respected honest man, and the high position of most of the Roses he 
sent into commerce is in itself an ample testimony to the correctness of 
his judgment. He was not actuated merely by the considerations of 
pecuniary gain that his Roses might bring to him, as the following 
incident will illustrate. When I visited his garden, after showing me 
his other treasures, he said, “ I have here a Rose which I think will be 
the parent of a new race,” and he brought me over to see the seedling 
plant of La France. I was so taken by it that I ventured on behalf of 
a London nurseryman to offer him a sum of money which would have 
been considered by many Frenchmen as quite a fortune. “ No,” was his 
reply, “ I will not part with it. I believe it will perpetuate my memory, 
and so I would rather it should go out as mine.” I cannot but think 
he was right. In one thing, however, so far, he was somewhat too 
sanguine, for La France has up to this time never eiveu a pod of seed, 
although I hear that Messrs. Dickson & Son of Newtownards have a 
seedling from it. 
Lyons was so far south, and the journey is a long and tedious one, that 
English rosarians did not come in contact with him so often as they did 
with his Parisian confreres. Thus while I frequently visited Margottin 
and Verdier, I paid only one visit to Guillot. But all who did so can 
bear testimony t) the fact that he was an intelligent and pleasant 
companion and an enthusiast in his love of the flower for which he had 
done so much.—D., Deal. 
OSIERS. 
It has been represented to the Board of Agriculture that it would be 
useful that they should obtain and publish some information respecting 
the cultivation of Osiers, with a view to direct the attention of agricul¬ 
turists and others to a special industry for which there would appear to 
be some room for development in certain parts of this country. The 
Board have, therefore, collected certain particulars, and have obtained a 
report by one of their Inspectors—Mr. W. C. Little of Stags Holt, 
March, who was assisted in his inquiries by Mr. J. Brown of Wisbech— 
as to the conditions under which Osier growing is now pursued in the 
Fen districts, from which the following notes have been compiled. 
There are no official records of the quantity of Osiers imported into 
this country, but it has been estimated that some thousands of tons are 
received from abroad annually. There is also said to be a large and 
increasing importation of baskets. The number of baskets required for 
the fruit industry alone is considerable, and it must increase with the 
extension of fruit cultivation. Formerly the fruit was generally packed 
in baskets made of red or unpeeled Osiers, but white Osier baskets are 
almost invariably used now. 
Osier Willows are grown in nearly every country in Europe. Their 
eultivation has received special attention in France, Belgium, Holland, 
parts of Germany, and South Russia, 
In France Osiers occupy large areas in the valleys of the Aisne, Oise, 
Loire, Gironde, and on the banks of the Dordogne and Rhone. The 
basket Osier (Salix viminalis) is largely grown in the departments of 
Aisne and Ardennes. 
The area under Osiers in Belgium, according to the latest official 
returns, amounts to 11,036 acres, the larger portion of this surface is in 
the provinces of Antwerp and Bast Flanders, which have 3780 and 2811 
acres respectively. 
In Bavaria great efforts have been made to improve the cultivation 
of Osiers, and the area devoted to Osier holts in that country is steadily 
increasing. 
Osier Growing in the Fen Country. 
The term Osier is popularly used as comprehending all the trees or 
shrubs of the Salix genus, which are cultivated as a crop to be 
converted by the basket maker and similar craftsmen into various 
articles which are known as wickerwork. The genus Salix includes 
Willows, Sallows, and Osiers. Most of the kinds grown for a crop in 
the Fen district are, it is stated, really Willows, and not Osiers. At any 
rate, while growers use the term in a collective sense they limit the 
term when distinguishing sorts of rods to a coarse growing, softwooded 
species, which peels indifferently, and is only grown in limited quantities 
for a particular purpose. 
Osiers are grown in enclosed plantations, which are locally known 
as holts. The produce of the Osier holt is known commercially as 
“ rods.” 
Green rods are fresh cut and unpeeled. 
Brown rods are those which have been left to dry in their skins. 
White rods are those which have had the bark removed or peeled. 
Buff rods are produced by boiling brown rods and then peeling them; 
but the colour thus produced is imitated by dyeing. 
In the Fen district the growth of Osiers is chiefly carried on in 
unembanked river valleys which are subject to flooding. A variety of 
circumstances contribute perhaps to this situation being almost 
universally selected. It is not merely that this is the natural habitat of 
the genus, and that the soil is suitable, but the convenience of having 
close at hand water carriage for a bulky and heavy crop, which must 
be for the most part removed in a green state, has ao doubt tended to 
restrict the growth of Osiers almost entirely to the borders of rivers. An 
additional reason for the selection of such sites is, that the periodical 
winter floods bring down from the uplands a considerable quantity of 
soil, which acts as a fertiliser and is obtained at a comparatively cheap 
rate. Floods, however, are occasionally the cause of considerable injury 
to the holts. An ice flood cuts the rods and seriously damages them. 
Sheet ice settling down on the holt will entirely destroy a crop, and a 
spring flood, which entirely covers the young shoots, will kill them ; but 
freshets, which disappear quickly and which do not rise above the tops 
of the rods, do no harm. 
The area of Osier holts in the district in question has been approxi¬ 
mately estimated as follows :— 
In the Ouse Valley, between St. Ives (Hunts) 
and Denver (Norfolk) ... ... ... ... 190 acres. 
In the Cam Valley, near Cambridge and Ely ... 108 „ 
In the Nene Valley, in the neighbourhood of 
Peterboro’ . 00 „ 
In the Welland Valley, around Spalding and 
Crowland . 130 ,, 
But these estimates exclude considerable areas above St. Ives, Peter¬ 
boro’, and Cambridge. 
Ely and Barith are centres of a considerable growth of Osiers, of rod 
peeling, and of basket making. 
There can be no doubt that the extent of Osier holts in the Fen 
district is now much less than it was ; but at the present moment there 
is some evidence of increased interest in the subject and greater atten¬ 
tion to the business. The industry is apparently becoming more of a 
speciality, and basket makers are planting holts in some instances to 
supply their own requirements. 
The Cultivation of the Osier. 
The most suitable soil for the growth of Osiers is a deep, rich, moist, 
alluvial soil. Any good clay may be planted if sufficiently moist. Peat 
moor and hot gravels are absolutely unsuitable. Though water is 
requisite, a holt will not thrive in stagnant water. 
The site of a holt having been selected, the land must be thoroughly 
cleaned during the summer before planting, and it may be worth while 
to give it a complete summer fallow. Before the winter sets in it must 
be thoroughly stirred either by digging or ploughing to a depth of 14 or 
16 inches. 
If the soil is not naturally rich it should be manured, and soot is 
said to be a good preparation for the crop. 
Planting should be done in February or March. The sets are cut 
from wood of two years’ growth—they should be 16 or 18 inches long, 
and about 10 inches of the set should be in the ground. Daring the 
spring and early summer the spaces between the rows must be kept 
clean by hoeing and forking. The cleaning must be completed before 
the middle of June, or the Osiers will be injured. The cost of cleaning 
is variously estimated at from £1 to £2 per acre per annum for the first 
two years. After that time the expense of cleaning is much less, as 
the dense and rapid growth of the Osiers stifles and smothers all other 
vegetation. It may be mentioned in passing that the young shoots from 
