434 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
plantations, but of little value for osiers. When the crop is per- 
mitted to grow two years before cutting, the roots make a much 
more vigorous growth than they would have made if the shoots had 
been all cut off the first year. As the quality of the osiers depends 
on the size and vigor of the roots upon which they grow, it is not 
wise to adopt any practice which will check their growth or make 
them less vigorous. The roots being well established, the crop of 
the third year, will be valuable for osiers ; the shoots should be cut 
the following year a short time before the sap begins to flow, and 
if they are to be peeled without steaming, they should be tied in 
bundles of a convenient size with the osiers very even at the large 
end, that they may be set upright in water, about 3 inches in 
depth, where they should remain until the bark is in a condition 
to slip easily from the wood, when the work of stripping the bark 
from the osiers should begin and be continued, without inter- 
ruption, until the work is completed. If the osiers are to be 
steamed to loosen the bark, the work may commence as soon as 
the osiers are cut, and when the bark has been stripped off the 
steamed osiers, they should be dropped immediately into a long 
trough of cold water, where they should lay a few hours, and then 
be taken out and dried in a storehouse where there is a good cir- 
culation of air. Dropping the osiers in cold water makes them 
dry a lighter color whether they are steamed, or peeled without 
steaming. When the osiers are well dried, they should be bound 
in bundles of from 80 to 50 pounds each, according to size and 
length, and sent to market. | 
When willows are to be grown to be used for the hoops of nail 
kegs or for the binders of boxes, shoots of nearly uniform thick- 
ness can be obtained by the device of stripping off, in the spring, 
all the lower leaves of those growing shoots which have already 
made one year’s growth. In the spring, at the time when the 
leaves are about half an inch long, the top of the shoot is grasped 
in one hand, and all the leaves except a few at the top, are stripped 
off with the thumb and finger of the other hand. After a little 
practice this stripping can be done very rapidly; it prevents the 
growth of lateral branches, and secures the production of hoop- 
poles or box-binders which are entirely free from knots, and 
almost as large at the upper end as at the lower. A good two 
