126 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Alton to St. Louis is 25 miles, down the far famed American bot¬ 
tom—an immense tract of land that was covered, and in somi pla¬ 
ces greatly injured, by the great flood. But it never was under that 
kind of a state of cultivation which would satisfy any man who had 
an aspiration above a “ hog and hominy” kind of existence, and 
was willing to have the “ shakes” half the year, for permission even 
to enjoy that much. I believe I met with a fair sample of half of the 
inhabitants, in an individual who had lived upon the same farm 40 
years, and has not an acre of grass or fruit tree in the world, but can 
brag of raising more and bigger corn than all the rest of creation, 
“ Old Kaintuck” included. 
I asked him why he did not raise grass? “ Well, he did some¬ 
times think on't—and he tried it about 30 years ago, but it did’nt do 
well.” And why don’t you set an orchard ? “ Well, I reckon may 
be I will some day—did set out a few trees once, and they grew 
powerfully, but the cattle soon destroyed ’em.” And no wonder, 
for they were set in “ the big field,” the eternal corn field. Fences 
are much swept away, and probably the barns with them, for they 
are not to be seen now, although the little old miserable dwellings, 
like the owners, hang on. The land in many places is much grown 
over with bushes, mostly crab-apple, which abound by the million. 
The bottom is nine miles wide, and is bounded on the east by a very 
high clay bluff, that bears evident marks high up its face, that here 
once run a mighty current. There are also many mounds upon the 
bottom that show the same appearance, and that the stream gradu¬ 
ally wore down this immense mass of clay to the present level. 
During the flood, the ferry was nine miles wide ; now less than a 
ninth of that, which I crossed upon the 22d of January, 1845, on a 
steam ferry boat, and upon a beautiful sunny day as we need wish 
for in May. The two boats at this ferry are almost constantly 
crowded with produce and market wagons from 60 or 70 miles back 
in Illinois, coming to St. Louis. The old part of this city was built 
upon an abrupt rocky bank, and in addition to its outward wall, 
many of the old Spanish houses were separately walled in like a 
strong fortification. Some vestiges of these, and the old Spanish 
houses, still remain, but are fast giving way to the spirit of improve¬ 
ment, every where visible. But the town suffers one monstrous in¬ 
convenience in the narrowness of the streets. Some of the main 
business streets being barely wide enough to allow two wagons to 
pass. It is a place of immense businesss. constantly on the increase. 
The lead and fur traders alone employing great capital, and the vast 
agricultural country above, that draws its supplies through this place, 
create a vast trade. 
The land around the city is not under good improvement; which 
is probably owing to the want of good title : much of it being an old 
Spanish grant for a public common. All the land between the city 
and Jefferson Barracks, and even below, is in the same condition, 
being claimed as a common of the town of Carondalet, a little mis¬ 
erable collection of old Spanish or older French houses, a few miles 
below St. Louis, and is one of the oldest French towns in the west. 
This common land remains unsettled, and the timber having been 
cut off, is now grown up to bushes; and in the vicinity of such a 
city has a very unsightly appearance. Jefferson Barracks, by the 
expenditure of a few wagon loads of Uncle Sam’s money, has been 
made a beautiful spot amid this wilderness of Spanish spoliation and 
French frivolity, both of which classes had rather live on frogs and 
tobacco, and spend their time in drinking and dancing, than in grow¬ 
ing rich by the cultivation of the earth. 
The old Spanish and French citizens in St. Louis, for a long time 
successfully resisted the spirit of improvement that pulls down to 
build up; and the old grants of land to this class of cilizens, some of 
which are still unsettled, have been a great detriment to the im¬ 
provement of this part of the State of Missouri. 
From St. Louis to the Merrimac river, IS miles, the road lies over 
a succession of clayey hills, and for 14 miles after leaving the city, 
scarcely any improvements, and them but poor. Soon after crossing 
this stream, we begin to enter the great mining district of Missouri, 
and find ourselves climbing rocky mountain sides, picking our way 
along some mountain stream that winds between high precipices of 
perpendicular rocks. Oh what a change. What a contrast from 
the boundless and comparatively level prairie, where the eye found 
no limit but the horizon, to this pent up prison of rocky grandeur. 
The prairie land behind me lies, 
That boundless realm of grass and hay. 
The mountain rocks before me rise, 
With nought to cheer my toilsome way. 
Yes, I have something to cheer me on my way ; and that is, that 
what I see and take note of, may give pleasure to those, who in im¬ 
agination, accompany on his tour, their old friend, 
Solon Robinson. 
SWAMP WILLOW- 
Salix discolor- 
-BASKET WTLLOW. 
-Salix viminalis.) 
“ Some trees their birth to bounteous nature owe; 
For some without the pains of planting grow. 
With osiers thus the banks of brooks abound, 
Sprung from the wat’ry genius of the ground; 
From the same principles, gray willows come, 
Herculean poplars and the tender broom.” 
[Dryden’s Virgil. Georgic 2d.] 
Permit me, Mr. Editor, to resume the subject of the Willow, com¬ 
menced in the April number of the Cultivator (for 1844. page 125.) 
My attention was called to it by the suggestion of Mr. William Par¬ 
tridge of New-York. one of your correspondents. 
In my former communication, it was shown that the native and 
foreign willows were cultivated and manufactured in this country to 
a considerable extent and that the wild and uncultivated article was 
also collected and applied to useful purposes. 
Many persons are employed in the domestic fabrication of willow- 
btakets and other willow-ware, while a few only are engaged in 
James Dowd. 
cultivating it It is a business that may be increased to an indefinite 
extent, and give employment to many an industrious person. When 
the art of making baskets from willow, is once acquired, it requires 
but a small capital to commence the trade. With a few tools, a few 
bundles of willow, and a small space to work in, an individual may 
easily undertake to work on his own account. The most expensive 
apparatus would probabl v be a tight box to soak the willow in, that 
it may be easily bent and twisted in the manipulation of the art, and 
another box with a tight lid or cover to bleach the manufactured ar¬ 
ticles. The bleaching is effected by subjecting them to the fumes 
of burning sulphur, a small portion of which is put in an earthen pot 
and placed in the bottom of the box, and the lid closed to prevent the 
escape of the sulphurous acid which is formed by the slow combus¬ 
tion of the sulphur, and which whitens the willow. 
In the conversion of willow into articles of utility, we have an art, 
a trade, or domestic manufacture, which deserves encouragement, 
because it may be carried on in the small way, and bee use we 
| have abundance of the raw material growing wild, which may be 
collected at little expense, or may be propagated by cuttings, in 
I waste swampy lands, without interfering with any other trade or 
employment. That the art of basket-making is not difficult to ac- 
jquire, we have the evidence presented at the late Fair of the State 
I Agricultural Society at Poughkeepsie, (Sept. 1844,) where a number 
of articles of basket-work, made of American willow by the pupils 
I of the New-York Institution for the Blind, were exhibited. Had 
j there been any other articles of the kind offered for a premium, those 
| made by the Blind would have advantageously compared with them 
i in beauty of finish and workmanship. 
They were entered in the name of the “ New-York Institution for 
the Blind,” by Mr. George Horn, teacher of basket-making, as the 
work of the following boys, pupils of the Institution : 
1 Fishing basket,. made by J. Collins. 
I Chair,. “ Chas. O’Connor. 
1 Nest of knife baskets,.) 
1 Nest of market baskets,. j 
3. Clothes baskets,. “ Alfred Holmes. 
2 Toy wagons,.I u Wm r, un]an 
1 Foul clothes basket,.j Wm * • Uunla P- 
1 Bandbox basket,. “ Thomas Murphy. 
These were all declared by Mr. Horn, to have been made entire¬ 
ly by blind boys, and of American Willow. We are informed by 
one of the Committee on Discretionary premiums, that the articles 
arrived towards the last of the Fair, and when the Committee were 
about closing their report, and that as there was no competition, one 
dollar was awarded to each of the above named pupils as an encour¬ 
agement to them, to persevere in an employment which promises to 
be so useful to them, and is so creditable to the Institution where 
they are taught. 
Seeing these articles at the Fair, led us to make some further in¬ 
quiries about willow and the willow-basket business as carried on 
at the Institution for the Blind in the city of New-York. We were 
j informed that one of the trustees or managers of that charity, was 
many years since impressed with the conviction that American wil¬ 
low might be advantageously employed in making baskets and oth- 
|er willow-ware. In August, 1834, he was on a visit to Mr. John R. 
Stuyvesant of Hyde Park in Dutchess county, and he observed a 
quantity of the native willow growing wild in apiece of wet ground 
on the farm of that gentleman. He amused himself by cutting and 
peeling the bark of the long and slim sprouts, until he had collected 
two bundles, and sent them as a present to the Blind Institution for 
trial, through Mr. Stuveysant, who was at that time one of the Board 
of Managers. Two large baskets were made of the said willow and 
sent to Poughkeepsie to show that we had the raw material for a 
new aud useful employment. But the teacher of basket-work at that 
time in the Institution, (Wm. Murray, himself blind.) stated that the 
willow was good, as to length, smoothness, and uniformity" in its ta¬ 
per, but brittle, on account of being cut in the wrong time of the 
year. It should be cut, he said, in March or April. This agrees 
with the fact as stated in our former communication, and as practi¬ 
ced on Staten Island by Mr. Reed, Mr. Leveridge and others who 
cultivate the native and imported varieties. 
When one undertakes to investigate a subject, one fact leads to 
another. So when we were made acquainted with the above, we 
were presented with a series of the annual reports of the New-York 
Inst hut ion for the Blind, from which, and one of the managers, we 
have drawn the following information in relation to the manufacture 
of willow. 
In the early stage of the Institution, under the superintendence of 
Dr. John D. Russ, the first attempt in working with willow, was in 
covering bottles and demijohns without assistance or previous in¬ 
struction. The ingenuity and contrivance of the superintendent was 
partially successful, but slow in its operation A basket maker in 
the suburbs of the city was then consulted, and he agreed to give the 
blind inmates of the Institution, instruction in the art, a portion of a 
day r three times a week. He came at the appointed time, but decli¬ 
ned the undertaking, alledging that he would be mobbed by the trade 
if he should comply with the proposition. 
Mr. Windle of Maiden-Lane in New-York, who deals largely in 
wooden-ware, willow-baskets and house furnishing articles, inform 
ed Dr. Russ, that his only chance to obtain the requisite knowledge, 
was by engaging some foreign artist soon after his arrival, and be¬ 
fore he had become connected with others of the trade. 
Such a person was subsequently engaged, together with his wife 
They were adepts in making fine work of split willow, which would 
come in competition with the fine baskets imported from France. Al¬ 
though they were engaged at high wages, they remained but a short 
time, being induced to quit their employment and instruction of the 
blind, for "a promise of still higher wages in another part of the 
country. They afterwards returned to New-York, and expressed 
regret at having relinquished their first engagement, as they were 
not fairly dea’t with by those who enticed them away : but the In¬ 
stitution was otherwise supplied in the art of basket-making, and the 
