376 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 31,1889. 
is exceptional. A curious thing is that the moths lay their eggs 
upon fruit trees, and after they have fed a week or two the young 
caterpillars travel down to visit garden plants. In colour they are 
dark brown with some white lines and black dots. Probably the 
moth received its name from the numerous crescent-like spots upon 
the wings.—E ntomologist. 
OSIER CULTURE. 
Can you give me any information upon the culture of Osiers, 
naming the best sorts and the probable profits to be derived?—C. M. S. 
Our correspondent will find what he requires in the following 
article, which appeared in these pages some time ago :— 
Plantations, or large beds of Osiers, might be very advantageously 
■grown in almost any soil—such as banks of rivers, drained moors, &c., 
and, annually cut, would produce a sum of money that I have no doubt 
would largely remunerate the grower. And from land that cannot 
otherwise be made available for tillage, notwithstanding the vicissitudes 
•of seasons, taking good and bad under view, the writer has experimentally 
ascertained that an acre of Willows or Osiers will often bring the grower 
a larger sum of money than an acre of Wheat; and likewise from land 
that would be almost useless for other kinds of crops. It is rather 
astonishing that the growth of them is not more attended to both in 
England and Scotland. As regards the nature of the soil and subsoil 
suitable for growing them in to the best perfection, Osiers delight in 
banks of rivers or drained moors, and are greatly invigorated by 
•occasional floods or irrigations. Plantations of them may also be formed, 
and will succeed well, on low spongy bottoms along the margin of 
streams, in almost any lowland district of Britain. 
In the great majority of farms are to be found level, marshy, wet 
spots, which, by drainage cannot well be made available for tillage, and 
which might be planted with the Willow, and would afterwards recom¬ 
pense the proprietor or farmer in a twofold way. The land might be 
prepared in various ways for this crop, owing to the extent and nature 
-of the soil. Where the land will admit of being ploughed and harrowed, 
and has formerly undergone cultivation, I find that, at the present prices 
of Willow-sets or plants, and the expense of labour, it would not cost 
more than £8 15s. per English acre, allowing the plants to be planted at 
a distance of 28 inches by 18 inches apart. But I find that for plantations 
of any considerable extent for Osiers the ground should be formed by 
the spade into beds of from 8 to 9 feet broad, with intervening furrows 
or narrow ditches to carry off the water. The plantation may be made 
at any time between the fall of the leaf and an advanced period in 
spring ; but the two last weeks of February and first week of March are 
•the most proper times for planting the Willows. Cuttings 15 inches 
long should be taken with the knife on an upward slope from well- 
ripened wood of either two or three years’ growth ; experimental trial 
convinces me they grow more luxuriantly when planted about two-thirds 
of their length in the ground than when they are less deeply inserted. 
1 can learn from frequent trials that, where depth of soil can be 
obtained, Osiers succeed best in a deep, moist, free soil—ground to be 
dug to the depth of 24 inches, with a small quantity of dung and old 
lime rubbish put in the bottom of the trench. When Willows are 
planted in stiff tenacious soils they are much more tardy in growth, and 
very liable to the ravages of a brown bug, which is accompanied by a 
black caterpillar, often making great ravages. The ground should be 
hoed and kept; clean ; the space will well admit of this, as Osiers should 
in no case be planted closer than 21 inches by 18 inches apart. The 
expense of preparing Osier plantrt Ans by spade-work in this way of 
•course depends much on the nature and situation of the land ; but in 
ordinary soils drains can be cleared out to the depth of 30 inches by 
22 inches broad at surface, having a scarpment, leaving it 12 inches 
broad at bottom. This form of a ditch can be made at from 5£d. to fid. 
per perch, and the ground of an English acre, trenched and prepared to 
the depth of 2 feet, for £6 10s. fid., or nearly so, and planting performed 
-at about 18s. per English acre. The Willow, for the use of the basket 
maker, should be cut every year slopingly with the knife, within three 
buds of the point whence the shoot issued, and will admit of being cut 
hack once in three years for the use of the cooper, exactly to the swell 
of the shoot of the three years’ growth, thus compressing the plant 
back to its ancient dwarf form, at the same time realising a handsome 
return. 
Moreover, by treating Osiers in this way they will last and produce 
well for a great many years. The ground should be deeply stirred with 
the hoe and kept clear of weeds ; but digging with a spade around the 
roots of Willows often proves very hurtful to the fibrous feeders, as we 
■often meet with a great portion of such oozing and growing very near 
the surface of the soil. Plantations of Osiers thus treated, notwith¬ 
standing the vicissitudes of the seasons, will bring the grower at least 
the sum of £12 sterling for every year after they arrive at their full 
growth. This sum of £12, I have minutely tested, can be at the present 
time realised from an English acre of Willows, after all expenses of 
cleaning and cutting-down the crop are adopted. 
The Best Varieties and Most Profitable Applications.—The kinds 
most approved of for pollarding, coppice wood, fuel, poles, or bark, are 
the Huntingdon Willow (Salix alba), and a variety called the Red- 
twigged or Bedford (S. Russelliana). 
The best sorts for Osier grounds are—First, the common Osier (S. 
viminalis); second, the Red Osier (S. rubra) ; third, the fine basket 
Osier (S. Forbyana) ; fourth, the Velvet Osier (S. mollissima) ; fifth, 
the Long-leaved Willow (S. triandra) ; sixth, the Golden Willow 
(S. vitellina). These are the sorts mo3t esteemed for the various pur¬ 
poses of the basket maker, the cooper, and the turner. The way in 
which Willows are most commonly disposed of, after being cut, is they 
are sorted into trusses and tied into bundles of 2 feet and sometimes 
2 feet in circumference, and if intended to be stripped of their bark they 
are set on their thick end immersed a few inches in standing water, and 
left there until the latter part of the following month of May. 
It has of late been asserted by various respectable parties that as 
high a sum as from £13 to £14 of nett profit, and sometimes more, 
could be derived at the present time from an English acre of Willows, 
under very ordinary treatment. They succeed best in northern ex¬ 
posures provided they are not over-topped. Should the ground be at all 
suitable for the crop, each set will produce in the first year two good 
basket rods, or 24,000, worth fid. per 100 of 120. The second year, the 
sets being much stronger, will produce on an average six rods, one more 
or less being considered a very common number, one of which may be 
left on each stock for hoops, and the remaining 60,000 cut for baskets, 
which would be worth much about £24 sterling. By the third year there 
ought to be at least 12,000 hoops, worth 4s. per 100 of 120, and from 
28,000 to 29,000, worth at least £13 10s. 
These results may be obtained even by fair cultivation under 
ordinary circumstances. Of course it may sometimes be difficult to 
obtain a ready market or sale for the basket rods ; the hoops we find 
to be always such, and much sought after. The greater part of those 
used in Ireland are imported and much sought after also, with com¬ 
monly a very scanty supply. No hoops should be left by the third year 
on the plants, as the rods which grow under the shade of the hoops are 
seldom or ever strong enough. Mr. Philips of Ely in England, was one of 
the greatest cultivator of Osiers at the close of the eighteenth century 
and beginning of the present, and he always obtained from £12 
to £18 per acre, according to the fluctuation of prices, after deducting 
all costs of labour, &c. ; the Red Welsh Willow (S. purpurea), and the 
White Welsh (S. helix), being at that time the two leading and 
favourite sorts, they being at that time disposed of in bunches an ell in 
circumference, after being peeled and whitened, by compressing them in 
an iron hoop to this size, if the plants be not in any way destroyed by 
insects, to which in some years they are subject, under good cultivation 
upwards of £10 could, at the present time, be realised of nett profit, 
after deducting all expenses of labour, from an English acre of Osiers ; 
and although an old adage in Lincolnshire, it is nevertheless still true, 
that “ a Willow will buy a horse before an Oak will buy a saddle.” 
As to what towns and countries they are in most request, we find them 
in request in a great many large manufacturing towns and seaports, 
more especially in Dublin. The butter trade in Ireland causes a great 
consumption for hoops for butter firkins throughout the season. I have 
witnessed hoops of Hazel and Black Sally, as it is termed, sold at 12s. 
and 13s. per 1000, and the cooper cut them at his own cost; and in 
Dublin there is the Institution for the Blind, that requires to import a 
great many yearly to keep their hands employed. A much greater con¬ 
sumption for Willows might be relied upon were they but more exten¬ 
sively cultivated. An accurate calculation has been made that at 
least 6000 acres of Willows could readily be disposed of in Scotland 
and England, at prices that would very handsomely remunerate the 
grower. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM CENTENARY CONFERENCE AT CHISWICK, 
November 5th and 6th, 1889. 
Amongst the celebrations of the centenary of the introduction of 
the Chrysanthemum into Europe, organised at Edinburgh, Toulouse, 
Ghent, and other centres of horticultural activity, the Exhibition and 
Conference to be held by the Royal Horticultural Society in the gardens 
at Chiswick should prove conspicuous for interest, for the metropolis is, 
before all places, the home of the eastern flower. 
It is arranged that an historical display of flowers grown by the 
Society will be made in the great vinery at Chiswick, November 5th 
and 6th, this being supplemented by collections of plants and flowers 
contributed by cultivators, many of the most eminent of these being 
members of the Managing Committee. The schedule for the Show con¬ 
sists of thirty-six classes, and although in some few of these the usual 
practice of “ dressing ” the flowers will be allowed, the general purport 
of the classes is to ensure the finest and most representative examples 
of natural development, the skill of the cultivator stopping short at the 
point where intentional modification of form begins. Thus in the 
classes for plants there are some special places reserved for such as are 
best adapted for decorative purposes, apart from the “ finishing touches ” 
of the florist, while in several classes for cut flowers the specimens are 
to be accompanied with natural foliage, and are to be shown as cut 
from the plant. In certain classes dressing will be allowed, and will be 
carried to the highest point by experts ; but the natural growth of the 
same varieties will appear with them, to attord instructive contrasts 
