CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
THE CULTIVATION OF THE
WILLOW.
By W. CLARSON.
In view of the extensive culture of the
willow for commercial purposes in England
and in many parts of the European continent, it is a matter for surprise that so
little attention has been given to it on the
Australian continent.
Perhaps this is
largely due to the prevailing belief that the
vanities of willow require an abundance of water and a cold climate, it being customary
to associate the tree with the idea of
"Running brooks through meadows cool and
green,'
but, as a matter of fact, neither of these
conditions are essential or even necessary
to the healthy, vigorous, and profitable
growth of the willow as a commercial product.
Of late years, and especially since the
failure of the usual agricultural crops to be
remunerative, and the consequent decline in farming, much attention has been paid in England to the willow, of which there are
several hundreds of varieties, though,
perhaps, not more than fifty are grown for commercial purposes
Near the village of Basford, in Nottinghamshire, is to be seen, perhaps, the best
collection m the world It is owned by Mr.
Scaling, basketmaker to the Queen, and contains over 300 varieties, ranging from the
pretty little Vimmalis minor to the massive
growing Bedfordiana and Huntingdon, which yield timber of large size.
From this collection the writer in 1874 sent HO[?] kinds to
the Horticultural Society of Victoria, but the
extreme length of the voyage of the ship
which conveyed them was fatal to most of
them. Perhaps the best known in the colonies is the variety familiar as the Babylonian, a
native of Armenia and China, the graceful
weeping willow so generally grown for effect
in Australia, and of which a tree luxuriates
over the old resting place of the first Napoleon at St. Helena. It was set many years
the custom of visitors to this island to take
away cuttings of this historic tree, and probably, as a consequence, no variety is so widely diffused or so generally liked.
The willow is one of the earliest mentioned
trees in the Bible, and in the ancient
records of Egypt and China the tree is frequently figured. A rough device on the old
fashioned and still common dinner service
gives the name of " Willow pattern" to it,
and many matters point to the popularity of
the tree in nearly all old world communities.
Indeed, the many important uses rendered
to man by the different varieties of the
willow seem to place it in the very foremost rank of economic plants
No ligneous plant will stand the extremes
of climate, or bear removal from a warm to a
cold situation, or, visa versa so well as the
willow. It will grow under a tropical sun,
or in the desolate icebound regions of
Northern Europe, on the barren hill, or the
fertile plain. It will thrive with little or no
moisture, and few people can believe the vast
range from beat to cold many of the varieties will stand. It may be instanced
that in the frigid climate of Siberia
the very same kinds of willows flourish which
are found to suit even the torrid zones of Egypt and mid Africa, and the oft-times
parched regions of the western districts of
Australia,
Largely as the osier and other basket making varieties are grown in Great Britain, the
supply is very short of the requirements of the trade, and there are more than 10,000 tons
annually imported from Belgium, where the
crop is much mores Systematically grown. The
old style of growing the willow in England is
a good deal ridiculed by Continental growers
aim the more enlightened and advanced
modern cultivators of the plant. Large tracts
of low and swampy country in Cambridgeshire and the Midlands are occupied
by the osier. These are grown by the
margins of Bruneians, or in the at times submerged meadows and reed beds.
They
annually yield a crop of shoots which will
vary from tile, to 12ft. in length, and these
are cut at the beginning of winter, the trees
being left closely pollarded till spring growth
sets in for the next year's crop. Systematic
growers of the willow look upon this as a
somewhat barbarous or antiquated method,
as under it not a tenth of the crop is got
which might be obtained by a bettor system.
Besides, it is found that the shoots when
grown with a superabundance of moisture
arc not nearly so tough and serviceable as
when grown on well drained and aerated
soil, while the cost of harvesting them in
wet, boggy meadows, or reedy marshes and
river margins is very great.
The following varieties of the willow are
good sorts to grow for the various uses in-
dicated -ror basket making Salis capre,
S vimmalis, S germánica, b kerkstt, b.
ferrugiueu, S. purpurea, for timber-balix I
alba, S. lonna, S. crcruleu, S. alba, S Bed
fordiuna, S I.usselhann , lor hedges-Salix
kerkBii, S purpurea, b germánica , for scenic
effects or landscape planting-the weeping,
thegolden stemmed, the purple stemmed, and
the silver-fohaged, with others,
BUCII as the pyramidal and compact headed varieties, may be used All the varieties give a wood, the charcoal of which is used for gunpowder, none other-not even the alder-being equal to it for this purpose. They grow readily from cuttings or truncheons of wood from one to three years old.
To grow them as trees those must be planted closely, say 3ft apart each way, giving 4,840 to the acre, and be allowed to remain at that distance tor the first six or eight years, when they may be thinned out, every alternate one being taken out, thus leaving the trees Oft apart each way ; the resulting wood being very saleable tor many uses.
At the end of 12 years another thinning out may be effected, giving very valuable wood, and leaving the trees say 121t. apart, which will be ample room for tho full development of the tree for timber purposes. The distances named are suited for the Bedford, the white Huntingdon, the KusBelhann, and other varieties grown for their wood.
It cannot be too often repeated that the willow will not arrive at perfection or yield the best wood in swampy undrained land. The tree will grow on the slopes and even on the tops of exposed hills, and, indeed, in all places except moraases or water logged land, and the dry arid plains, with little or no rainfall. With the progress of irrigation, even those places not suitable now will yield a profitable and annually increasing crop. There are thousands of acres owned by our sheep farmers and others winch might be planted successfully-serving the double purpose of shelter belts and ornamental plantations, and yielding timber which is yearly advancing in value and appreciation, while to the farmer who enters upon their systematic growth for an annual yield of the basket willow, it will prove a constant and never failing crop.
A notice of this, the true commercial method of growing the basket willow for profit will be interesting to intending planters In the month of March, in the Midland Counties of England, the waste twigs and tbe refuse of the unpeeled shoots up to half an inch in diameter are tied up in bundles or 1 sheaves, and cut with a band chaffcutter in lengths of about a couple of inches. A largo portion of these will be without any bud, and, of course, will not grow ; but 25 per cent, at least, will have a bud. These are sown just as they are, broadcast, about six or eight bushels to tile acre, or they are picked over and planted in drills 2ft, apart, and Cm between the cuttings.
The soil is previously well manured in the autumn, left in fallow during winter, and brought to a nice friable tilth in the spring, ready for the sowing or planting. A heavy roller is passed over the field when the planting or sowing is finished. Any of the larger weeds, such as docks and thistles, are cut or hand-picked, but the minor weeds arc soon killed or smothered by the vigorous growths of the young cuttings.
The crop is cut in the month of November, after leaf fall, and this may be taken with a bean hook, or even with a strong bladed mower and binder. After the harvest of the first and second years the soil is harrowed, without at all harming the little stumps, to keep down the weeds, and every second year it reçeives a light dressing of superphosphates or of well decayed farmyard manure. In the course of four years every second plant may be cut out with an adre like hop, and they may again be thinned two years afterwards, from which time up till the yield will be a maximum crop
The straw like yield of the first year find a ready market in Switzerland for the more delicate wickerware there fabricated ; but every succeeding year will give an increasingly payable crop of robust shoots for the English market. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance in these colonies of the willow and its culture. If Bit about in earnest, it quickly yields an excellent return near a ready market, and one of the least troublesome crops a man can grow.
The industry of basket making is in its infancy here, but it is steadily growing, and, with facilities for obtaining the raw material will quickly attain large dimensions. At present the only regular supply o£ osiers is obtained from Tasmania and owing to their scarcity they are largely supplemented by thae rattan cane imported from India.
Frequently the inmates of our blind asylums who practice the art of buaketmaking are kept idle from want of material to work with some valuable evidence was given before the Vegetable Products Commission as to the suitability of the willow for culture in the colonies, but little was apparently known as to a culture and treatment as practised in modern days m Europe.
1 ew persons are aware of the multifarious, uses to which the willow is put Aa enumeration of these would unnecessarily extend this article but a few of the purposes served by it will sufhee _ be most important of these is that of making basketware, skeps and other vehicles for the transmission of fruit and vegetables, and for the fabrication of numerous articles of domestic use for the carnage of fruit and other articles liable to damage by bruising or by confinement in n close atmosphere, willow baskets are universally used in old world countries, and the importance of the simple Industry of ranking these can scarcely bo estimated
The great advantage of wicker work over boxes constructed of rigid wood consists in its lightness great strength, airiness, elasticity, durability, and cleanliness. The surface of the twigs being smooth and the structure yielding on pressure the fruit is not chafed in carriage, while in the ordinary hardwood cases commonly used in the colonies for the transmission of fruit great injury is frequently done by the rough and "splintery surfaces economy, too, 19 another consideration
In England, after use, the empty baskets or skeps arc packed closely within each other in "nests' and returned from market to the sender carriage free, or at but a nominal charge; while in these colonies the unwieldy hardwood cases occupy as much room when empty aa when full, are frequently broken in unpacking, and rarely used a second time, The willow skeps are made oval, round, or square, with hinged or moveable lids Tapering towards the bottom they readily "nest '.
A score may be put together in this form, and occupy little room as 'returns'. There may also be noticed the large industry of making the fancy wickerwork articles, such as ladies work baskets, reticules, bassinettes, trinket, key, toy, and other baskets we find scattered about our dwellings and offices These, though mude largely in longland, form a vast industry m France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Special varieties of willow, of very fine twiggy growth, are raised largely for these purposes, and the system of cultivating them as a commercial crop, as before described, n a curiong as it is interesting Mr Scaling told the writer that under tina system the twiga ara grown so even m thickness that in a field of them there will scarcely be a greater varia- tion in size than is observable in the sterna of wheat or rye growing in the cornfield.
Another use to which the wood of the willow is put is that of making cricket bats,no other timber having been discovered which will so well withstand the shocks and bruises without splintering. It is for ths valuable property that it is used extensively for the paddle floats of Steamers, for the brakes of railway waggons and trucks Indeed, it is the only wood that will stand the kind of presse and concussion without fracture. Its extreme elasticity and tough, nare constitute it the best of all materials foe the sides and bottoms of carts and burrows for rough work, and Mr Scaling strongly advocates this timber being used for the construction of railway carnages as they would be less liable to be broken into splinters in cases of collision, and BO prora au element of safety to life
The beautiful enrgraved and turned Tunbridge ware, so fashionable m England, is of the white willow. Tho wood is used by turners for polishing other woods, and by cork cutters and leather cutters for keeping a keen edge on their knives Hoops for barrels, bows and stretchers for waggon and tent covers, twigs for tying up vegetables and plants and vines ate other uses to which the willow is applied.
Willow burns very slowly and is not very easily ignited, a valuable quality where it is necessary to use wooden constructions in close proximity to fire. It also makes excellent charcoal and crayons for artists use, and for the manufacture of gunpowder he charcoal excels it.
Another important use to which the willow is applied is that of dyeing; wool and in tanning skins. The leaves and young twigs give a pure cinnamon colour ta woollen goods, and the bark being; rich in tannin, is used 111 the preparation of the best kinds of Russia and! Morocco leathers. Paxton relates that in the north of Europe the leaves and young; shoots are given to cattle fresh, or are dried and stored tor winter feed, like those of the birch.
As a hedge plant the willow has of lata years been extensively planted in Juglannd, the Varieties known as Kerksu and Germánica alba being best suited for the purpose If planted l8 inches apart they will in a couple of years form a formidable fence; and the annual trimmings of these will yield n steadily increasing profit. Where it is tin sired to render the fence very strong, the annual shoots may be interlaced and euagrnited by approach at the points of contact will in time render the fence impregnable to ordinary annuals, whilst the intense bitterness of the bark of the varieties named will protect it from being bitten by sheep, cattle, or horses, or even by rabbits or hurps, which seem to have a peculiar aversion to the two kinds of willow mentioned
Sahcinc, which in medicine is said to suit many patients better than quinine, in the active principal or alkaloid of the willow, and the modern preservative UBed in checking fermentation 111 animal and vegetable substances is salicylic acid, the basis of which IB a salt of the willow. In all this the value of the tree in a commercial sense, has been but briefly touched upon. There yet remains to notice the great beauty and many uses of the tree in landscape gardening and ornamental planting, and as a shelter or breakwind in exposed positions.
No tree be a such varied aspects in the willow Varieties moy be had of trailing, pendulous, weeping, spreading, pyramidal and upright habit, with foliage of purple, silver, golden, glaucous, and of every shade of green. The vivid colouring of tho young shoots is a moat effect two in musses, and especially during winter, when the trees are taking their annual repose. The sahctum of Mr Scaling during winter is one of the horticultural Bights of the Midlands, big groups of varieties, of many shades of colour. Standing out in the land- scape like an exhibition of carpet bedding oil a large scale As a help in preserving the banks of rivers and canals or artificial water channels no plant equals the willow, as it lines the aides with dense masses of fibrous roots/ and so protects the soil along the watercourse from being washed away.
It is right to state, however, that the tree should never be planted near a well, waterhole, or drain, as the toots invariably find their way into and fill up and choke them.
BUCII as the pyramidal and compact headed varieties, may be used All the varieties give a wood, the charcoal of which is used for gunpowder, none other-not even the alder-being equal to it for this purpose. They grow readily from cuttings or truncheons of wood from one to three years old.
To grow them as trees those must be planted closely, say 3ft apart each way, giving 4,840 to the acre, and be allowed to remain at that distance tor the first six or eight years, when they may be thinned out, every alternate one being taken out, thus leaving the trees Oft apart each way ; the resulting wood being very saleable tor many uses.
At the end of 12 years another thinning out may be effected, giving very valuable wood, and leaving the trees say 121t. apart, which will be ample room for tho full development of the tree for timber purposes. The distances named are suited for the Bedford, the white Huntingdon, the KusBelhann, and other varieties grown for their wood.
It cannot be too often repeated that the willow will not arrive at perfection or yield the best wood in swampy undrained land. The tree will grow on the slopes and even on the tops of exposed hills, and, indeed, in all places except moraases or water logged land, and the dry arid plains, with little or no rainfall. With the progress of irrigation, even those places not suitable now will yield a profitable and annually increasing crop. There are thousands of acres owned by our sheep farmers and others winch might be planted successfully-serving the double purpose of shelter belts and ornamental plantations, and yielding timber which is yearly advancing in value and appreciation, while to the farmer who enters upon their systematic growth for an annual yield of the basket willow, it will prove a constant and never failing crop.
A notice of this, the true commercial method of growing the basket willow for profit will be interesting to intending planters In the month of March, in the Midland Counties of England, the waste twigs and tbe refuse of the unpeeled shoots up to half an inch in diameter are tied up in bundles or 1 sheaves, and cut with a band chaffcutter in lengths of about a couple of inches. A largo portion of these will be without any bud, and, of course, will not grow ; but 25 per cent, at least, will have a bud. These are sown just as they are, broadcast, about six or eight bushels to tile acre, or they are picked over and planted in drills 2ft, apart, and Cm between the cuttings.
The soil is previously well manured in the autumn, left in fallow during winter, and brought to a nice friable tilth in the spring, ready for the sowing or planting. A heavy roller is passed over the field when the planting or sowing is finished. Any of the larger weeds, such as docks and thistles, are cut or hand-picked, but the minor weeds arc soon killed or smothered by the vigorous growths of the young cuttings.
The crop is cut in the month of November, after leaf fall, and this may be taken with a bean hook, or even with a strong bladed mower and binder. After the harvest of the first and second years the soil is harrowed, without at all harming the little stumps, to keep down the weeds, and every second year it reçeives a light dressing of superphosphates or of well decayed farmyard manure. In the course of four years every second plant may be cut out with an adre like hop, and they may again be thinned two years afterwards, from which time up till the yield will be a maximum crop
The straw like yield of the first year find a ready market in Switzerland for the more delicate wickerware there fabricated ; but every succeeding year will give an increasingly payable crop of robust shoots for the English market. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance in these colonies of the willow and its culture. If Bit about in earnest, it quickly yields an excellent return near a ready market, and one of the least troublesome crops a man can grow.
The industry of basket making is in its infancy here, but it is steadily growing, and, with facilities for obtaining the raw material will quickly attain large dimensions. At present the only regular supply o£ osiers is obtained from Tasmania and owing to their scarcity they are largely supplemented by thae rattan cane imported from India.
Frequently the inmates of our blind asylums who practice the art of buaketmaking are kept idle from want of material to work with some valuable evidence was given before the Vegetable Products Commission as to the suitability of the willow for culture in the colonies, but little was apparently known as to a culture and treatment as practised in modern days m Europe.
1 ew persons are aware of the multifarious, uses to which the willow is put Aa enumeration of these would unnecessarily extend this article but a few of the purposes served by it will sufhee _ be most important of these is that of making basketware, skeps and other vehicles for the transmission of fruit and vegetables, and for the fabrication of numerous articles of domestic use for the carnage of fruit and other articles liable to damage by bruising or by confinement in n close atmosphere, willow baskets are universally used in old world countries, and the importance of the simple Industry of ranking these can scarcely bo estimated
The great advantage of wicker work over boxes constructed of rigid wood consists in its lightness great strength, airiness, elasticity, durability, and cleanliness. The surface of the twigs being smooth and the structure yielding on pressure the fruit is not chafed in carriage, while in the ordinary hardwood cases commonly used in the colonies for the transmission of fruit great injury is frequently done by the rough and "splintery surfaces economy, too, 19 another consideration
In England, after use, the empty baskets or skeps arc packed closely within each other in "nests' and returned from market to the sender carriage free, or at but a nominal charge; while in these colonies the unwieldy hardwood cases occupy as much room when empty aa when full, are frequently broken in unpacking, and rarely used a second time, The willow skeps are made oval, round, or square, with hinged or moveable lids Tapering towards the bottom they readily "nest '.
A score may be put together in this form, and occupy little room as 'returns'. There may also be noticed the large industry of making the fancy wickerwork articles, such as ladies work baskets, reticules, bassinettes, trinket, key, toy, and other baskets we find scattered about our dwellings and offices These, though mude largely in longland, form a vast industry m France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Special varieties of willow, of very fine twiggy growth, are raised largely for these purposes, and the system of cultivating them as a commercial crop, as before described, n a curiong as it is interesting Mr Scaling told the writer that under tina system the twiga ara grown so even m thickness that in a field of them there will scarcely be a greater varia- tion in size than is observable in the sterna of wheat or rye growing in the cornfield.
Another use to which the wood of the willow is put is that of making cricket bats,no other timber having been discovered which will so well withstand the shocks and bruises without splintering. It is for ths valuable property that it is used extensively for the paddle floats of Steamers, for the brakes of railway waggons and trucks Indeed, it is the only wood that will stand the kind of presse and concussion without fracture. Its extreme elasticity and tough, nare constitute it the best of all materials foe the sides and bottoms of carts and burrows for rough work, and Mr Scaling strongly advocates this timber being used for the construction of railway carnages as they would be less liable to be broken into splinters in cases of collision, and BO prora au element of safety to life
The beautiful enrgraved and turned Tunbridge ware, so fashionable m England, is of the white willow. Tho wood is used by turners for polishing other woods, and by cork cutters and leather cutters for keeping a keen edge on their knives Hoops for barrels, bows and stretchers for waggon and tent covers, twigs for tying up vegetables and plants and vines ate other uses to which the willow is applied.
Willow burns very slowly and is not very easily ignited, a valuable quality where it is necessary to use wooden constructions in close proximity to fire. It also makes excellent charcoal and crayons for artists use, and for the manufacture of gunpowder he charcoal excels it.
Another important use to which the willow is applied is that of dyeing; wool and in tanning skins. The leaves and young twigs give a pure cinnamon colour ta woollen goods, and the bark being; rich in tannin, is used 111 the preparation of the best kinds of Russia and! Morocco leathers. Paxton relates that in the north of Europe the leaves and young; shoots are given to cattle fresh, or are dried and stored tor winter feed, like those of the birch.
As a hedge plant the willow has of lata years been extensively planted in Juglannd, the Varieties known as Kerksu and Germánica alba being best suited for the purpose If planted l8 inches apart they will in a couple of years form a formidable fence; and the annual trimmings of these will yield n steadily increasing profit. Where it is tin sired to render the fence very strong, the annual shoots may be interlaced and euagrnited by approach at the points of contact will in time render the fence impregnable to ordinary annuals, whilst the intense bitterness of the bark of the varieties named will protect it from being bitten by sheep, cattle, or horses, or even by rabbits or hurps, which seem to have a peculiar aversion to the two kinds of willow mentioned
Sahcinc, which in medicine is said to suit many patients better than quinine, in the active principal or alkaloid of the willow, and the modern preservative UBed in checking fermentation 111 animal and vegetable substances is salicylic acid, the basis of which IB a salt of the willow. In all this the value of the tree in a commercial sense, has been but briefly touched upon. There yet remains to notice the great beauty and many uses of the tree in landscape gardening and ornamental planting, and as a shelter or breakwind in exposed positions.
No tree be a such varied aspects in the willow Varieties moy be had of trailing, pendulous, weeping, spreading, pyramidal and upright habit, with foliage of purple, silver, golden, glaucous, and of every shade of green. The vivid colouring of tho young shoots is a moat effect two in musses, and especially during winter, when the trees are taking their annual repose. The sahctum of Mr Scaling during winter is one of the horticultural Bights of the Midlands, big groups of varieties, of many shades of colour. Standing out in the land- scape like an exhibition of carpet bedding oil a large scale As a help in preserving the banks of rivers and canals or artificial water channels no plant equals the willow, as it lines the aides with dense masses of fibrous roots/ and so protects the soil along the watercourse from being washed away.
It is right to state, however, that the tree should never be planted near a well, waterhole, or drain, as the toots invariably find their way into and fill up and choke them.
No comments:
Post a Comment