1872 .] 
337 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
we never or seldom thus think of our meadows, 
and they in a sense are live-stock, and suffer 
from want of protection as much as cows, colts, 
or calves. On the contrary, a mistaken economy 
tempts us to deprive them of the natural pro- 
aud streams. A new plantation should be kept 
cut closely every year, so as to force out a good 
annual growth of shoots from the stumps, 
and the osiers may be gathered after the 
second or third year, Rut osiers may also be 
Fig. 1.— PREPARING OSIERS FOR MARKET. 
tection of the aftermath, and generally they are 
eaten bare and close throughout the fall months, 
and go into winter quarters with their tenderest 
parts exposed to the killing blasts and biting 
frosts. Then the roots are winter-killed or 
thrown out, and in the spring, instead of the 
living green, we see the dead sere brown, and 
the season gets the discredit, when it is the re¬ 
sult of mismanagement only or chiefly. A good 
coat of decaying aftermath would furnish pro¬ 
tection and future nutriment as well, and by all 
means meadows should be so managed as to 
secure all the aftermath, or at least a large por¬ 
tion of it, for this purpose. Young lambs or 
calves may be pastured if necessary, but it is a 
most costly economy to turn horses or cows on 
to newly-sown clover or grass or to newly- 
mown fields. But considering that the fields 
are in danger of becoming poached while sod¬ 
den with rain by even the lightest hoofs, it will 
be found cheapest in the end to keep all stock 
off from the fields to be mown next season. 
Willows and Baskets. 
grown by cutting off the mature trees a few 
feet above ground, and thus causing them to 
throw out numerous small branches, as in fig. 2. 
This is called “ pollarding,” and a willow thus 
cut off is a pollard or pollarded willow. In one 
year these shoots xvill grow several feet in 
Figs, i and 5.— foundation of round basket. 
length, and in the fall are cut off close to the 
tree, and laid away in heaps until the following- 
spring, when at the commencement of the 
growing season they are placed in water until 
the buds swell. They are then trimmed and 
peeled. A boy or girl removes with a sharp 
The culture and preparation of willows for 
market 
V 
sufficiently easy and profitable to 
make it worthy of being carried on 
more systematically than it is at 
present. Osiers at the present time 
bring ten cents per pound in the 
New York market, and good ones 
are always in demand. There are 
several varieties of willow which 
may be made to produce osiers— 
the common "White Willow (Salix 
alba) and its variety the Yellow or 
Golden Willow, the twigs of which 
are used for coarse work, and 
generally without being peeled, and 
the Basket Willow (Salic vimina- 
lis), which furnishes osiers superior 
to any others in length, flexibility, smoothness, 
and whiteness, and fitness for the finest kinds of 
wortc. These willows are readily grown from 
cuttings on rich soils or on the banks of ponds 
AMMMf i 
7. —WEAVING BOTTOM. 
Fig. 2.— pollard willows. 
knife all the twigs, and hands them over to the 
peeler. This operator sits on a bench or before 
a log or stump in which is fixed an instrument 
shaped like that shown in fig. 3. This is made 
of two half-inch iron rods, eighteen inches long, 
welded together at one end, and gradually sepa¬ 
rating like the prongs of a fork at the other end. 
A stem welded on serves to retain it in a hole 
bored to receive 
it. The osier is 
drawn through 
this instrument, 
which strips off 
the bark, and it 
is then laid on 
one side until a 
bunch is gath¬ 
ered, when they 
are tied up, and 
are ready to be pjo-_ —beginning of bottom, 
sent to market. 
These operations are shown in fig. 1. Some 
osiers for coarse work are used without being 
peeled, but none are sent thus to market for 
sale unless spe¬ 
cial 1 y ordered. 
The growth of 
osiers may be 
made a means of 
adding to the 
resources of 
many farms, as 
willows will 
grow wherever 
their roots can 
get plenty of 
moisture. The 
making of baskets might also furnish employ¬ 
ment for stormy days or long, dull winter 
evenings, when otherwise there might be no 
profitable employment. "Weaving osiers into 
various kinds of 
baskets is an art 
which may be 
easily learned, 
and once the 
rougher methods 
for coarse work, 
such as bar n 
baskets, or mar¬ 
ket baskets, or 
h am pers for 
packing bottles, 
which in them¬ 
selves are considerable branches of trade, are 
well mastered, and facility in them is acquired, 
the finer sorts of work will come quite handy, 
and can be easily performed. The commence- 
m e n t of all 
basket-m a k i n g | j jj 
consists in laying II li : §KM? 
the foundation, 
and this is shown 
in figs. 4, 5, and G. 
Figs. 4 and 5 
show the frame 
for a round-bot- 
tomed basket 
with handle. Fig. 
6 shows the frame 
for a flat or 
square-bottomed 
basket, which 
consists of three 
coarse osiers, laid 
crosswise of 
three other simi¬ 
lar ones. The weaving commences by pass¬ 
ing-finer osiers round the coarse ones where they 
cross each other, and when they are secured 
together they are spread out until they radiate 
like the spokes of a wheel, as shown in fig. 7, 
Fig. 8.—bottom finished. 
Fi, 
9.—weaving tee sides. 
