652 
a 
SEPT 28 
W&m. 
Notwithstanding this unpromising, even 
forbidding aspect, the natural indications 
were such as to encourage the attempt, which 
made, has been made successfully, to clothe 
this waste with a profitable crop. 
Great encouragement was felt by the enter¬ 
prising planter as a result of his observations 
upon the plans Nature had adopted to enable 
the spontaneous growth to protect the sands 
from the baking heat and biting cold, und 
thus to secui e a more temperate stratum of 
soil near the surface for the feeding roots of 
the trees. The scanty herbage of the grasses 
could do little in this way. The Trailing Juni- 
per, however, soon covered the surface, and 
caught the blowing sands that formed cumuli 
about them; on other spots of the dunes a 
close carpeting of the Bear Berry (Arctosta- 
phylos) carpeted the sand, thus making it pos¬ 
sible for the tree-seeds to germinate and to 
survive the Summer heats, and with these aids 
the arboreal vegetation gradually Rpread over 
these ridges.—[To be continued.] 
there are important questions connected with 
this subject. There are places too wet for the 
plow; will the willow grow in such places ? 
Yes; I know places here where the willow has 
been raised 25 years without hoe or plow. The 
river bottoms that are overflowed a part of 
the year are, without doubt, the beet places 
for this crop. The overflow does no harm but 
adds to the fertility. They are grown on muck 
land, and in fact on all kinds of land; but those 
are the toughest that have been grown on high, 
dry grounds. People who get cuttings in the 
Fall can either plant at once or preserve them 
as nurserymen keep cuttings of the quince, 
grape and currant; but as most people would be 
liable to make mistakes in doing this, I would 
advise either to plant in the Fall or not get 
to be worked here. The manner of working 
the willow is different in different places. In 
this section the willow is all worked by Ger¬ 
mans, Each family usually has a shop where 
the different members of the family work the 
year around These Germans are very indus¬ 
trious and intelligent, and have made for 
themseves good homes and contributed very 
much to the development of the place. It 
was a German that introduced this industry 
into this neighborhood, and it has steadily 
grown from a small beginning until it now 
brings into the county about # 100,000 a year. 
But at no time has the growth been so rapid 
as for the last two or three years. It is esti¬ 
mated that last season about 20 per cent, was 
added to the amount in cultivation. It is 
great distance from a good shipping point, 
provided there is no manufactory near his 
place. 
How is it prepared for market? The bark 
is removed before working. When the wil¬ 
low has become dry after it is harvested, it is 
necessary to either boil or steam it. In 
Liverpool it is never boiled, but always 
steamed. Mr. Crawford, of that place, has 
invented a steaming apparatus that is in gen¬ 
eral use in this country. When the willow is 
cut at tlie right reason, and peeled at once, 
there is no need of steaming. It is peeled by 
drawing it through a little instrument made 
of steel, which is a very simple machine, but 
hardly necessary to describe here. As to the 
marketing of the manufactured work: Be¬ 
fore it is made, it is all sold to the wholesale 
dealer, who ships it to different parts of the 
country. As I write this article away from 
home and consequently cannot refer to my 
letters and papers, some questions that have 
been asked may remain unanswered, and, if 
so, there is plenty of time before planting to 
get any necessary information. If any read er 
wishes to make a plantation all he can do 
for some months yet is to get his land ready 
and he will probably get. through the Rural, 
all extra information he needs quite as soon 
as he will have occasion to use it. 
Syracuse, N. Y. A. M. Williams. 
THE BASKET WILLOW, 
I have just been to the willow district to 
observe the different fields and note the meth¬ 
ods of culture, and to gather Buch facts as I 
thought might interest readers of the Rural 
New-Yorker. In doing this I have had the 
assistance of several gentlemen of Liverpool 
who have gone with me to the fields and have 
given me some statistics which must have cost 
much time and labor to obtain. Messrs. Hal- 
leck, Gleason, Crawford and Terry have eaob 
taken much pains to assist me in my investi¬ 
gations. I have taken much time to investi¬ 
gate some doubtful questions on this subject, 
and on these questions I find men cultivating 
adjoining fields who differ essentially on the 
theory and practice. As an example, I ask 
what is the proper distance apart to plant ? 
One man prefers to put the rows three feet 
apart and the plants eight inches in the row; 
another puts them twelve inches in the row ; 
another sixteen inches, and some have planted 
this Spring three feet apart each way. Mr. 
Frank Terry plants "his three feet each way, 
so as to cultivate both ways as he does his 
corn. A large majority of the growers plant 
the rows three feet apart and one foot in the 
row. 
Now it is plain that less labor is required 
where the plants are three feet each way, but 
it is also plain that much less willow will be 
grown on the same land. The same principle 
comes in here as in raising corn and potatoes, 
where it is plain we can raise less by planting 
the rows far enough apart to cultivate with a 
horse than by planting in drills only a few 
inches apart, but the extra labor of cultiva¬ 
tion prevents tbegeDeral adoption of thiB meth¬ 
od. With the willow, however, there is usually 
much lees cultivation than with other crops. 
There is much willow grown in many places 
that is never cultivated at all. In this section 
the willow is mostly grown on dry land, and 
is well cultivated and some of it manured. We 
have seen how much the people differ as to the 
distance to plant; we shall find about the 
same difference of opinion on some other 
questions, and the same thing is true as to 
almost everything perttining to farming. I 
would advise to plant three feet by one. 
As to variety, the sort grown here is not the 
same as that at Geneva and in Western New 
York. I cannot find a man here who pre¬ 
tends to know the true name of it. it is 
doubtful about its being the Viminalis. Our 
dealers here often have orders for baskets be¬ 
yond what can be made from the growth of 
this section. When the stock here is exhaust¬ 
ed they go to tne western part of the State 
and pick up what they can, and it proves to 
be a very different article. They do not 
complain of the quality of it, but they are 
accustomed to their own and prefer it. 
I have taken much pains to inquire of dif¬ 
ferent men about the best time to plant— 
whether Spring or Fall—and I find about the 
same difference of opinion as exists on the 
subject of fruit tree planting. One of my 
neighbors will not plant an apple tree except 
in the Fall; another will not plant one except 
in the Spring, and they are both foolish about 
it, for such trees can be set with safety at 
either time. The same is true with respect to 
the willow. If willow is planted in the Fall 
where the land heaves, it is necessary to look 
it over in the Spring, and if any are thrown 
out to put them back. Where thi land does 
not heave the probability is the Fall is the best 
time, as the plants will commence growing 
earlier in the Spring and get a larger growth 
the first year. What length should the cut¬ 
tings be to plant ? One says eight inches; an¬ 
other says ten; another says twelve. The 
majority plant them about nine inches long. 
This makes little difference, but they should 
be pressed down in the soil leaving above 
ground perhaps two inches. They are usually 
slanted a little instead of being straight up 
and down. 
In my former articles I advised that the ground 
should be prepared as for any farm crop; but 
FUNCTION OF DRONES, 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
It is almost always rash and dangerous to 
call in question the opinion of the true scien¬ 
tist. Such a one does not make a statement 
till repeated observations are found abund¬ 
antly to warrant it. Dzierzon, the great Bee- 
master of Germany, has proved himself to be 
a scientist of high rank. Many men have at¬ 
tacked his scientific propositions, only to be 
vanquished as the facts were more accurately 
observed and studied. Lately two of our 
ablest editors have dared to call in question 
Dzierzon’s position as to the function of drones; 
let us see if they are warranted in so doing. 
Dzierzon holds and teachas that the sole 
purpose of the drones is to impregnate the 
young queens. He admits that they perform 
a secondary purpose, of supplying some heat 
to the hive, but that this is no essential part 
of their function. 
Mr. C. N. Abbott, the able editor of the 
British Bee Journal, in the current volume of 
his paper, page 35, takes issue with this posi¬ 
tion. He thinks that when the bees swarm 
the drones are requisite to furnish sufficient 
heat to preserve the larvie He states that the 
most of the drones remain in the old hive and 
that their presence prevents loss as suggested 
above. He believes also that the drones aid in 
the evaporation of the honey, thus hastening 
the ripening prooessand securing the early seal¬ 
ing of the stores, which would otherwise re¬ 
main unsealed possibly to the end of the sea¬ 
son. 
Mr. T. G. Newman, in an editorial in the 
American Bee Journal of June 28th, p. 402, 
asserts chat the drones seem busy in the hive 
and are often seen clustered over the eggs and 
brood, and expresses the opinion that they aid 
in the work of incubation. He further says, 
“if drones do no * family duty’ in the hive, 
how is it possible to rear a hive full of drones 
when the queen becomes a drone-layer ?” 
(It is not possible unless there are workers to 
care for the drone brood). With Mr. Abbott 
he reasons that from the great number at the 
time of rapid storing the dronps aid in ripen¬ 
ing the honey. With commendable caution he 
adds that he does not think that hordes of 
drones are necessary, but he questions the pro¬ 
priety of too rigorous exclusion. He makes 
the strange assertion that drones are not ex¬ 
traordinary gormandizers, and asserts as 
proof that when they are herded on capped 
honey for days the honey is not disturbed. 
While I have great respect for the gentle¬ 
men referred to above, I can but think that 
they have added another example to the long 
list of hasty generalizations, forming conclu¬ 
sions that they would not have reached or 
announced had they waited for further expe¬ 
rience and observation. If their propositions 
are hasty, they certainly are mischievous, as 
they call in question the advice of the best 
bee keepers, and the practice of hosts of the 
ablest apiarists of the country, who have 
thought that they saw only good in reducing 
the number of drones. Let us study facts and 
see what they suggest. 
First that drones are extraordinary feeders, 
during the season of their activity, is very 
easily demonstrated. We cannot dissect a 
drone at this season without finding his stom¬ 
ach laboring to digest a huge drop of honey— 
as much iu fact as we find in the sucking 
Btomach of the worker when it is replete with 
nectar. Mr. Newman’s argument that when 
herded on sealed honey they do not uncap it, 
Lately-shorn Lincoln Ram.— Fig. 311.— See Page 653, 
them until Spring, and thus take no chances; 
but in this case it might be necessary to engage 
them in the Fall, as for half the time they 
cannot be obtained in the Spring. Last Spring 
many people wrote to me to know if I could 
find some cuttings for them. I wrote several 
letters to different places; but did not succeed 
in getting one. All had been sold; and now 
after all I have said people inquire about get¬ 
ting the roots or the seed, and so I repeat this 
crop is never raised by planting seeds or roots, 
but always from cuttings. I have now an¬ 
swered all questions about the kind of land, 
its preparation, the time to plant, what to 
plant, and when the stock is obtained, any 
one can know how to plant without further 
instruction. 
Again, the question is asked, where can I 
get the stock to plant and what will it cost. 
The price of this stock varies from time to 
time, and it is too early yet to say anything 
about price, except this, the crop this year is 
fine, and there is in this country about 20 per 
cent, more to be harvested this year than 
last, and the probabilities are that stock for 
planting will be cheap. Probably when the 
time comes some of our people who have stock 
will advertise it in the Rural, as I certainly 
should advise them to do. But more in- 
this rapid increase that gives the croakers a 
chance to cry the business will soon be over¬ 
done. The fact is it is in its infancy, and the 
demand will increase faster than the supply. 
I have stated that the work here is done by 
families; this is in contrast to that of many 
places where the work is all done on the fac¬ 
tory system. This factory system is proba¬ 
bly carried farther in Milwaukee than in any 
other place in this country. According to the 
most reliable information I can obtain the 
village of Liverpool, in this county, manu¬ 
factures much the largest amount of willow 
of any place in the United States, and Mil¬ 
waukee comes next. A gentleman who has 
corresponded with dealers of the different 
cities for the purpose of getting the statistics, 
gives me the following figures: The amount 
worked yearly in and around Albany is about 
90 tons: in Milwaukee one firm raise and work 
about 100 tons. This is all done on the fac¬ 
tory system, and the firms are manufacturing 
other articles on a large Beale. In Buffalo one 
firm handles about 135 tons; New York, Jer¬ 
sey City, Brooklyn, Hoboken, Williamsburg 
and Philadelphia are the other principal 
places of manufacture. Now when we add 
the amounts of all these places the aggregate, 
according to the estimates of the dealers them- 
Lately-shorn Oxford-Down Ram. 
formation is wanted about the profits. Here, 
testimony is somewhat conflicting, and, so far 
as my observation goes, the men who speak 
most disparagingly are the very men who are 
covering their farms with it as fast as possi¬ 
ble. The highest price ever paid for willow 
in this country, so far as I can learn, is #37 
per ton, but these were war prices, aud it is to 
be hoped it will never be so high again. The 
usual price last Fall was #30, although some 
got #33. I am told the largest amount grown 
on an acre is eight tons. This is extraordi¬ 
nary, and five tons are a good yield. I believe 
no unworked willow is sent out of this county, 
but willow is bought whenever it can be found 
Fig. 312.— See Page 653. 
selves, is less than that of this county alone. 
The amount worked in this county yearly 
is estimated at 700 tons I have no means of 
learning the correctness of these figures. They 
are obtained by writing to these different 
cities for information, and riiere is reason to 
believe they are nearly coreect. People wish 
to know where they can market their stock 
when there is no manufactory near home. 
We see the large cities generally are begin¬ 
ning to work. Willow manufactories will 
start up generally, and wherever there is a 
German settlement there will be likely to be 
men who know how to work it. I would 
not advise any one to plant it who lives at a 
